Birmingham residents are facing huge cuts and a ‘disgraceful’ council tax hike as the deadline for a £300million savings plan expires.
Government commissioners overseeing Birmingham City Council since October set the deadline of January 7 for the authority to identify £300million of savings over the next two years.
The target was initially set at £200million, and the new draft outlining more cuts is expected to be published this week.
In the latest financial plan agreed to by the council’s cabinet back in December, only £150million worth of cuts had been found - half of what is needed.
Birmingham residents have been left furious at the prospect of the council tax rise
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The largest cut revealed so far is planned for the Children and Families department with £57million worth of funding expected to go.
Other cuts are set to target City Operations, saving £29million, which includes highway maintenance and bin collections, and Council Management, which is set to receive a 50 per cent budget decrease of £15.6million.
The document confirmed this list "does not constitute the full and final list of savings expected to come forward for delivery in 2024-25", and says that plans could still change.
The financial crisis at the Labour-run local authority stems from an £87million deficit for 2023, on top of an Equal Pay liability of more than £750million.
Birmingham is one of a number of councils to have declared bankruptcy
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A further change hitting residents will be a council tax rise above the legal limit of 4.99 per cent. As agreed to in a Cabinet meeting in December, Council Leader, John Cotton, will write to the Department for Levelling Up requesting permission to hike the tax rate by 10, or even 15 percent.
For a Band D property in the city, this would mean an extra annual cost of £195, and raise more than £20million.
On the streets of Birmingham, residents told GB News they are worried and angry at the proposals.
One man said: “It’s disgraceful really isn’t it when you look into it!”
Another resident said: “I just do not see why the existing council taxpayers should be asked to pick up the tab for something that it is not their fault.”
One woman added: “I’d certainly be worried about raising council tax, but I’d be less worried if I could see a proper plan of how it was going to be spent and what we’re going to get as a benefit from that, rather than it just bailing out the council.”
The Labour-run authority blamed “a decade of cuts and rampant inflation” for the budget shortfall, and Leader of Birmingham City Council, John Cotton, has previously warned residents of the “challenges” ahead.
He said: “We know it will not be easy and we will have to make very difficult decisions about where money is spent and invested – and what we can no longer afford to do.”
Birmingham City Council are set to announce their 2024/25 budget in February.
