Birmingham City Council pledges to maintain services despite £150m cutbacks

BIRMINGHAM City Council has pledged to maintain a strong focus on culture, museums and the arts as well as on marketing the city, despite having to trim more than £150m from its budget.

The wealth generating capabilities of facilities such as Symphony Hall, the Museum and Art Gallery (with its new Staffordshire Hoard exhibition) and the Birmingham Royal Ballet, mean the local authority will maintain as much of them as it can as it continues to position Birmingham as a regional centre and a major European city.

Council leader Sir Albert Bore said council services had been graded according to priority and cuts would be made from the bottom up. Businesses and residents are now being consulted on the plan.

The cutbacks, which will include several thousand job losses, are having to be made being of reductions in Government subsidies, as well as the council’s debt burden. The latter is not helped by it having to make massive compensation payouts to female workers who were not paid the same as their male counterparts despite doing an equivalent job.

The council will also be investigating options for grant support from the likes of the European Regional Development Fund, which has aided the city in the past.
The new focus will help to ensure the council can maintain a high profile ahead of such events next year as the extension of the Midland Metro and the opening of the revamped New Street Station.

Job cuts are also likely at other authorities in the West Midlands as they look to balance their books in the wake of subsidy reductions.

Dudley Council has already warned that 300 jobs may have to go in the borough as it looks to save £57m over the next three years.

Similar cutbacks are also a possibility in Walsall.