Scepticism as Birmingham's crisis-hit council embarks on road to recovery

Crisis-hit Birmingham City Council has recently unveiled its path for recovery - but questions have emerged over whether it can actually be achieved. The Labour-run council has found itself in a bleak financial situation and recently voted to go ahead with an enormous wave of cuts to local services as well as a 10 per cent rise in council tax.

Its worrying predicament has sparked deep anxiety across the city, particularly after last September when it issued a section 114 notice - a sobering admission that it was struggling with its finances. Focus has now partly shifted to whether the council can turn things around, with the recently published ‘improvement and recovery plan (IRP)’ offering an insight into how it intends to undergo a “fundamental reset”.

The Labour council’s challenging road to recovery would involve tackling issues such as the equal pay claims, making savings, changing the culture of the council and becoming a ‘smaller and leaner’ organisation. Speaking at a meeting of the city council during a debate on the recovery plan, leader John Cotton said last month’s budget was passed with “heavy hearts”.

READ MORE: Calls to protect Birmingham's youth services amid 'violent' exploitation fears

“And we’re not, by any stretch of the imagination, out of the woods yet,” he warned. “We must redouble our efforts to deliver on that budget while also undertaking the work that’s already begun to set next year’s equally challenging budget.

“We will not succeed by simply fixing what is broken - instead what we’ve got to do is to fundamentally change as an organisation.”

Those from opposition parties however were sceptical, questioning whether the council could actually deliver on its plan. Conservative councillor Deirdre Alden, for the Edgbaston ward, said she was reminded of Edmund Blackadder “who constantly had to listen to Baldrick’s cunning plan which turned out to be completely unworkable”.

Councillor Morriam Jan from the Liberal Democrats argued: “All we have done is plug in the satnav and put in the destination postcode. Whether we have the skills to navigate [the route to recovery] is entirely another matter.”

We are now on WhatsApp. Join our dedicated community here

“The billion pound question is will [the plan] actually work and will it make a difference?” Green Party councillor Julien Pritchard meanwhile asked. “We’ve seen similar sentiments expressed over the years and then we hear the same thing five years later.”

In response to such concerns, council leader Cotton argued: “There can’t be any business as usual or complacency. Producing a document is not assurance - delivering the plan is the only way of providing that assurance.

“That has to be underpinned by a transformation of how this council does business." "We need to take the stuff we do really well and use it to transform the things that we know we have to better," he added.

He also stressed the importance of cultural change at the council and working with partners, including community groups. Sharon Thompson, deputy leader at the council, added: “I do accept some of the comments that we’ve had plans in the past, how is this different.

“This has to have the most robust governance processes wrapped around it to make sure things don’t fall through the net, which we have seen happen in the past.

“Risk management is running through the vein of this,” she added, before suggesting a change of the council’s culture was vital. “Everybody plays a part,” she said.

Keep up to date with all the latest politics news with our politics newsletter. You can sign up for free here to get stories delivered straight to your inbox to read at a time convenient to you.

• See our top stories and avoid ads by downloading our app to your phone or tablet