Council to cut further £81m to plug £300m hole

Birmingham City Council has detailed £81.8m more cuts to services, as it looks to plug a £300m budget gap.

£149.2m of savings had been identified in December, with children and family services the worst hit, with £57m set to be cut in the 2024/25 budget.

Now in a submission to commissioners, the council is proposing another £11.4m to be cut from the children and families budget for 2025/26, as well as £27m from adult social care.

A further £3.2m will be axed from the housing budget, as well as £22.8m from city operations including highways and infrastructure management.

Other savings include £4.2m from place, prosperity and sustainability, £6.9m from the council’s own management and £6.1m from cross-cuts.

This means savings of £231m have been identified across the next two years as the council works to save £300m.

But in a report to the cabinet, analysis now indicates that the budget gap may rise to tens of millions over the original £300m, thanks to continued growth pressures across adult and children social care and increased demand for temporary accommodation.

Oracle programme costs and forecast equal pay costs, additional staffing costs across social care and to support the Oracle finance system; and expected lost income (mainly from parking and potential asset sales) are also adding to this figure.