The equal pay claim that tipped Birmingham city council into bankruptcy last year is probably much smaller than the original £650mn-£760mn estimate, according to the man parachuted in to run Europe’s largest local authority and the unions representing claimants.
They say the original estimate far exceeded any likely payout. The real liability may be closer to £250mn.
Colour me surprised. Assets are already being stripped.
It now seem managers at Birmingham Council used an inflated figure for the equal pay settlement to drive the 'need' to make drastic cuts to services.
Already it has become clear that a botched Oracle IT implementation means the Council's finances are in a massive mess.... now it also seems the £750m liability for equal pay was three times the amount likely to be required....
There has been much discussion for the procurement issue in my timeline but overall this is a mess!
#DOTA2#ESLOne#Birmingham event was overall a great week of entertainment. Real shame about the loss of audio in the winners interview and show end. #esports
#TheMetalDogArticleList #BraveWords
OZZY OSBOURNE Determined To Visit The BLACK SABBATH Bench In Birmingham - "If I Have To Crawl I'm Going To Be There"; Video
Anonymous street artist Foka Wolf uses the language of advertising to highlight political and social issues, from the PPE crisis to food banks. “I grew up in a low income, single-parent household,” he says, “so I take it very fucking personally when people in power try and demonise those who are broke and voiceless.” #Birmingham#StreetArt#Art#FokaWolf
"The English councils’ current financial gap [is] about £4bn a year, which could have been filled more than twice over by the money #JeremyHunt used for that...cut in #NationalInsurance. He seems to still think that councils must sink or swim:...he & his allies in the rightwing press have reprised old and stupid rhetoric about millions supposedly being wasted on “consultants” and “diversity schemes”."
#Budget#UKPolitics This article by Gary Stevenson is so good, please read every word of it.
“Whatever Jeremy Hunt says, traders know the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. And they’re paid millions to bet on it.”
This is what the world is - it is run by a minute elite for a minute elite and the rest of us, the masses, the natural world, we just don’t count. It is a #TragedyOftheNonCommons (will reshare my own piece on this below 1/n)
#FollowTheMoney 🧵 11/n Another key area money flows away from are local councils and social services and, therefore, the young and, again, community. In Birmingham, whose council declared bankruptcy in 2023, provisions for children will be cut by £52m in 2024-25 and £63m in 2025-26; youth services by £2.3m; and eleven community centres are being sold off. As John Harris says:
The extreme financial problems in #Birmingham are less about the settlement of an #equalpay case & more about the disastrous implementation of an #Oracle IT system.
While this has been discussed publicly in the past, its worth emphasising its critical & central role in Birmingham's problems.... like the #Horizon IT problems at the Post Office, a large multinational #informationtechnology firm seems to be causing havoc with impunity!
Birmingham getting decimated, with closure of 25 of the city’s 36 libraries and plans to turn the remaining 11 into 'library and neighbourhood advice service hubs'
Meanwhile in #Birmingham the local; government budgetary crisis has forced the Council to sell £750mn of assets & cut expenditure by £300mn, while gaining exceptional clearance to levy 21% rise in council tax over the next two years.
Caught between a massive #equalpay settlement & a decade of budget attrition from the #Tories, as James Brackley, (Sheffield university) suggests the cuts 'all feels a bit scorched earth' leaving Birmingham Council in a downward doom loop of cuts & crisis.
The sculpture at Elan Valley visitor centre marking the centenary of the civil engineering project to provide the city of #Birmingham with wholesome fresh Welsh water.