Birmingham's Labour council leader has vowed to keep on protesting and challenging the cuts handed down by the Coalition Government, despite being warned off in Sir Bob Kerslake’s review.
Sir Albert Bore, in his annual budget address, claimed were using Kerslake’s damning report into Birmingham City Council as a way to sidestep difficult questions over its “unfair” funding settlement.
In his report, civil servant Sir Bob Kerslake warned the city council not to continue complaining about the cash it is given by government and instead focus its energy on spending the money it has wisely.
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But Sir Albert has said he will not be silent on the issue, especially as a wide range of policy think tanks, local government lobby groups and even the Lib Dem part of the Coalition have warned of a crisis in local government if cuts continue at the current rate.
He also repeated the point that the distribution of cuts, something agreed by all parties in Birmingham, was unfairly weighted against big cities.
“We have seen Eric Pickles and other ministers misusing the Kerslake report to try to imply that we have no right to protest about the cuts.
“Questions asked about the cuts by our MPs are routinely answered by ministers saying in effect ‘the city council has been criticised and therefore it is all their fault’.”
He said criticism of Birmingham’s private sector partnerships was unfounded, as demonstrated by its highways contract with Amey and joint ventures on Paradise Circus, Curzon Street and New Street Station.
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He added that library services – with 300 closed across the country.
“Mr Pickles has his political vision and we have a different one,” he told councillors.
“When ministers try to misuse the Kerslake report for political ends – to try to stop us criticising the Government cuts let us tell them loud and clear, you will never gag the people of this city or those elected to represent them.”
The attack on government came during a particularly heated budget debate which was halted three times by anti-cuts protesters who, chanting from the public gallery, accused the Labour leader of failing to stand up for public services in Birmingham.
But Labour’s budget proposals, which included £105 million cuts, were passed.
Sir Albert said: “Despite the scale of the cuts, we have brought forward a budget that reflects our aim of protecting the most vulnerable in our city as far as we can possibly can.”
He highlighted a £21 million increase in funding for child protection and said the service “may at last be turning the corner” after years of failure.
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And he added a note of optimism that Birmingham’s economy was growing, with major investment and jobs.
Both the opposition Conservative and Lib Dem groups challenged Labour’s decision to cut the library service, not to reinstate free garden waste collections or restore community project funds to local councillors.
Lib Dem deputy leader Coun Jon Hunt described the cuts in libraries, children’s centres, the as “a series of petty cuts to frontline services which could be put right for less than £10 million”.
Tory leader Councillor Robert Alden said the budget was not about how much money the council received from government but about what it chooses to spend it on.
He pointed out £42 million of the council cuts had been redirected to academy schools and still spent on services in the city and described new charges for the High Street BIDs as a ‘shoppers tax’.
And he attempted to play on Labour backbenchers’ insecurities over the ‘garden tax’ and library cuts going into an election to get their support for his motion calling for both to be scrapped.
Both sides also claimed the other was in denial over their roles in the city council’s failures and Kerslake fallout – the Tories said Sir Albert spend too much time complaining rather than getting on with improving the council, while he hit back and said their previous administration was at fault for failing to deal with equal pay and children’s services failure.
Council Budget 2015/16 key points
Total savings: £203m
Debt rescheduling: £58m
Use of reserves: £37.5m
Savings already in place: £36.8m
Cuts of: £69 million
Cuts to include:
* Library of Birmingham budget cut by £1.3m: opening hours slashed and about 90 redundancies
* New parking charges at largest parks. Ten per cent rise in car park charges
* £21m increase in child protection budget
* Unused playing fields sold off or handed over to sports groups
* £5m cut to early years service including children’s centres
* Cuts to social care services, some by re-commissioning or contracting out
* Withdrawal of major events subsidies
* £17 million ‘back office’ efficiencies