A Labour backbencher has launched his second bid to become Birmingham City Council leader with a pledge to get the city building and invest in small businesses.
Quinton councillor John Clancy has issued a manifesto to the 77 Labour group councillors hoping to persuade them to back him at the Labour group meeting on May 11 promising ‘red meat’ to appeal to Labour members and voters.
But he is undoubtedly the underdog in a contest with Sir Albert Bore, the Labour group leader for the last 14 years during which time he has seen off seven challenges.
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The last challenge from Coun Clancy in 2011 was swotted away with a thumping 43 votes to nine victory and Labour group opinion is that Sir Albert, now enjoying his second stint as council leader, remains comfortable favourite this time round.
Two years ago Coun Clancy’s approach was to criticise Sir Albert’s leadership, but this time he has drawn up a manifesto and promised a more ‘positive’ campaign to win the support of his colleagues.
A key incentive will be his proposal to increase the size of the Cabinet back up to ten, from the current eight members, and appoint five executive members at a tier below cabinet members - meaning seven more senior positions with which to reward supporters than his rival is offering.
And this time, with no Birmingham City Council elections taking place during the first week of May, there is more than the usual one week run up to the Labour group’s annual meeting for a leadership campaign.
The challenger’s opening salvo features a three policy outlines on housing, free school meals and council led investment in business - which he says are Labour policies through and through.
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First he wants to accelerate the council’s modest house building programme, drawing investment from public sector pension funds and other potential long term investors, to boost construction and create jobs and stimulate the economy.
“We have to seek out these funds, we can’t wait for Government, the Tory LEP or private construction to build,” he argues.
According to official targets the city needs at least 80,000 new homes by 2031 to meet expected demand requiring building at a rate of 4,000 homes a year at least.
A further proposal is to encourage council investment in small and medium size businesses, something Coun Clancy previously advocated in his former Birmingham Post column. He argues this could be funded through either bonds backed by a municipal bank or the city taking shares in enterprises.
“We need to become a city of 1,000 trades once more - through 100s of new SMEs and sustaining our endangered SMEs. We need to step in where the banks have failed,” he said.
His third proposal is for free breakfasts or school meals, or both, for every primary school pupil in the city within three years to improve health and education attainment.
This would start in year one with the 135 most disadvantaged city schools. He argues that the estimated £10 to £15 million extra this would cost should be starting point of the schools budget, and that social impact bonds, getting contractors to sponsor the policy, could cover it.
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He also claims that authorities such as Blackpool , Islington and Southwark have found free breakfasts affordable.
Behind all this is the need for Birmingham to go it increasingly alone.
“We need to go outside the usual funding sources and Government to bring in funds and put them to use where they will have the most impact on the local economy,” he says.
Coun Clancy’s challenge does not include a running mate to challenge for deputy leader. It is thought that many have been impressed with the performance of incumbent deputy leader Ian Ward this year and a challenge could be even more unlikely to succeed.