‘Jaws of Doom’ set to swallow up more job losses at Birmingham City Council

THE ‘Jaws of Doom’ have widened further in Birmingham with an announcement by the city council of a further 1,000 job losses – with the threat of more to follow.

The cash-strapped authority said in its budget proposals it had been left with little alternative than to make the cuts – even though it has shed a third of its workforce since 2010/11.

Council leader Sir Albert Bore, who christened the ‘Jaws of Doom’ phrase last year to illustrate the authority’s precarious position, said the cutbacks were necessary so the council could implement savings such as cuts to its controversial Service Birmingham contract.

Service Birmingham, outsourced to Capita, performs a number of back office functions for the council but has been the subject of constant criticism since its inception, mainly for its high costs and poor delivery.

In the Planning Birmingham’s Future & Budget Consultation 2014-15 statement, Cllr Bore said: “This time last year I spoke about the ‘Jaws of Doom’ and the council having to find £615m from its annual budget by 2017.  I am still talking about the ‘Jaws of Doom’ and they have widened significantly.

“Current forecasts are that the city council will need to have found £840m in the six years from 2010/11 to 2017/18 as a result of spending pressures and grant cuts – more than two thirds of the budget we have any choice over how to spend. This year alone, we will be making cuts in the region of £120m.

“We have pretty much reached the end of the road in terms of ‘salami slicing’ and/or efficiency savings and that we are very close to a point where we will be decommissioning whole services – stopping doing things completely.”

He added that in addition to the latest 1,000 redundancies, a further 14,000 full time posts would be lost by 2017/18.

“My Cabinet colleagues and I, with the support of officers, are doing our very best to minimise the impact of the most severe cuts ever in Government funding for local councils by protecting as many of the ‘frontline’ services as we can and protecting those most in need in Birmingham,” he said.

“However, if central Government continues to squeeze local government harder than any other section of the public sector – with cuts now in the region of 40% – and because of our reliance on funding from London we will have to stop delivering some local services from 2015/16.”

He accused politicians in Westminster of “systematically dismantling” the services that maintained the city.