birminghamcitycouncil

Sale of the century (but keep it under your hat)

Council silent on £360 million asset sales: our list shows what might go

By:
Published March 26, 2013, in Politics


auctionBirmingham City Council will be forced into conducting the biggest ever sell off of its huge property and land portfolio in order to meet huge equal pay compensation bill.

The cost of settling legal claims bought by no-win no-fee solicitors on behalf of thousands of women who were underpaid when working for the local authority already stands at close to £900 million.

No one can be certain about the size of the final bill, although a sum in excess of £1 billion looks a racing certainty and the figure could be higher if future court judgments go against the council.

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles has approved borrowing of £528 million to help the council meet the bill – a decision which in itself pushes up city debt to a level where a quarter of the revenue budget will soon be used solely for repaying loans rather than running services.

That would be bad enough at a time when swingeing Government grant cuts leave the council facing a £600 million funding gap. But as accountants Grant Thornton  noted in an audit report,

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Improvement plan for at-risk Birmingham children still not on track

Council insists 'direction of travel' is right although two-thirds of targets not being met

By:
Published March 8, 2013, in Politics


kidsBirmingham social services is failing to meet almost two-thirds of performance targets for looking after vulnerable children despite working under a Government improvement plan for four years.

Only 15 out of 41 safeguarding targets are being delivered, according to a leaked council document.

Twenty-six of the indicators are ‘red’ and failing, with the direction of travel in 12 improving and nine declining.

The report will be unsettling to Labour council leaders who have declared the fight to lift children’s social care out of an ‘inadequate’ finding by Ofsted to be a priority.

The department has been subject to Government special measures and working under an improvement board since 2009 after provision for vulnerable children was declared to be failing following several high-profile child deaths in the city.

Last month’s performance figures could hardly have come at a worse time with Ofsted due to visit

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Birmingham’s £100m cuts budget passed amid noisy protests

Gloomy Labour councillors accept 'no alternative' approach and agree to axe 1,000 jobs

By:
Published February 26, 2013, in Politics


councilhouseNoisy protests from the public gallery and a brief adjournment to evict protesters could not prevent Birmingham City Council from approving a budget that will deliver £100 million cuts to public services with the loss of 1,000 jobs.

But the unease among many members of the controlling Labour group was clear to see as council leader Sir Albert Bore predicted an even grimmer financial position next year and repeated his claim that Britain is witnessing the end of local government as we have known it.

There was little more than a polite ripple of applause for Sir Albert from his own side when he finished his 50-minute budget speech, with the claim that despite the cuts the council would become “a beacon of fairness”.

Arguments about the scale and choice of cuts continued to rage behind closed doors at a Labour group meeting on the eve of the annual budget-fixing session, before councillors finally approved Sir Albert’s tactics.

There was precious little good news in an otherwise doom-laden speech. Some £15 million has been identified to

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Scrutiny ‘grilling’ was a bit of a Bore

Council leader talks opponents into submission

By:
Published February 25, 2013, in Politics


Cover of High Noon (Collector’s Edition)

Anyone curious to know how Sir Albert Bore has managed to remain leader of Birmingham Labour councillors for 14 years, even though he has been in power for less than half of that time, could have learnt a lot by attending the main scrutiny committee.

Albert, nine months into his second period as council leader, was up for a ‘grilling’, and goodness knows there were plenty of pertinent questions that could have been asked.

His claim that a combination of Government cuts and the relentless demand for social care will leave the council £600 million worse off by 2017, causing ‘the end of local government as we know it’ and result in the decommissioning of services might have been worth probing.

His refusal to find a measly £8 million to enable the city’s poorest families to continue to receive full council tax benefit would have been at the top of any list of questions, you might think.

If Sir Albert was to have been roasted, then the scrutineers must have forgotten to

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The bid to topple Sir Albert is gathering pace

The inside track on Birmingham City Council - Paul Dale's Diary

By:
Published February 21, 2013, in Mr Dale's Diary, Opinion


Sir Albert Bore

Sir Albert Bore

It is inevitable that Sir Albert Bore and Ian Ward will be challenged for the leadership and deputy leadership of Birmingham City Council at the annual Labour group meeting in May.

Quinton councillor John Clancy has indicated to colleagues that he will definitely pitch himself against Sir Albert, assuming that a more heavyweight contender cannot be found from the cabinet, or possibly a senior elder-statesman figure in the shape of a scrutiny committee chair.

And it has become clear in recent weeks that Clancy is planning a double-coup by also lining up a candidate to take on Ian Ward, the affable and hard-working deputy council leader.

One can never be certain in politics, of course, but my estimation for what it is worth is that Clancy and his supporters among the 78-strong Labour group have zero chance of toppling Sir Albert and Cllr Ward. In fact, Clancy has as much chance of becoming the next Pope as the leader of Europe’s largest local authority.

We’ve been here before. Sir Albert certainly has. Will this be

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