First look at council cuts to plug £300m budget hole
Birmingham City Council has outlined where it could save £149.8m, as it works towards identifying £300m worth of savings by January 7.
Children and family services are the worst hit, with £57m set to be cut, followed by city operations including highways and infrastructure management with £29m.
The council’s own operations and management will be slashed by £15.6m – almost 50% of its budget.
30% of the budget for city housing and homelessness is expected to be saved as well as almost £22m from adult and social care.
The high-level savings proposal does note that the list “does not constitute the full and final list of savings expected to come forward for delivery in 2024/25” as the overall budget will be signed off in February.
Other savings include £9m from planning, transport and sustainability, £2.5m from public health, the communications team and chief executive’s office and £8.5m through contract savings, consolidation and automation.
Council leader John Cotton announced on Tuesday that he will write to the government to secure permission to hike council tax rates by more than the limit of 4.99% without holding a referendum.
The move follows the beginning of a ballot for strike action, with more than 3,000 staff set to vote following the council’s “delay” in settling its £760m equal pay liability.
The council effectively declared itself bankrupt following the liability, an £80m IT overspend and a series of budget cuts.
Cllr Cotton said last month there would not be a fire sale of assets, but commissioners agreed last week to a programme to regear the council’s £2.4bn investment property portfolio to propose sales of property and assets.
The council holds the largest land estate of any UK local authority, extending to 26,000 acres and attracts on average £34m of revenue per year from more than 6,500 property assets and over 300 of these have historic interest.
