Birmingham Post

Clancy hits back as more cuts revealed and council tax rises Government to blame, claims city leader

- Neil Elkes Local Government Correspond­ent

BIRMINGHAM’S Labour leader John Clancy accused the Government of wrecking council services as he looked to move on from the controvers­ial departure of chief executive Mark Rogers.

Mr Clancy came out fighting at the annual budget meeting this week – pointing the finger at the Government’s “unpreceden­ted nine-year attack on local government spending”.

It followed a turbulent seven days for Cllr Clancy in which his handling of the Mark Rogers exit was widely criticised and the council was handed another scathing report from a Government improvemen­t panel.

But a proposed council tax hike of five per cent will be like a sticking plaster on a gaping wound as costs of social care soar, Cllr Clancy claimed as councillor­s voted through his budget.

He said the three per cent social care levy, which the city’s council taxpayers will pay, will raise just £9 million towards the £338 million annual social care bill and nowhere near cover the costs of an ageing population or wage rises for over worked care staff.

The levy, coupled with the regular two per cent council tax rise, means citizens will see their bills rise by a total of five per cent this year.

But Mr Clancy called for the council to stop “obsessing about procedural issues” and concentrat­e on how it delivers the latest round of brutal funding cuts – with £71 million due to be cut in 2017/18.

That is on top of almost £600 million since 2010 with a promise from Government of a further £170 million to go by 2021.

However, this week the council was told it will find it hard to achieve its savings in a report to Government by the Birmingham Independen­t Improvemen­t Panel (BIIP).

In its letter to Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid, the panel concluded that while the budget plans seemed solid, they seriously doubted the Labour administra­tion’s ability to stick to them given a poor recent track record.

The council was accused of failing to make back office savings through “streamline­d working”. It was rumoured Mr Rogers, as the council’s most senior public official, was blamed for the poor performanc­e, including the failure to deliver £49 million savings during 2016/17.

Since 2010 the council has made 10,000 staff – about half the workforce – redundant.

But Mr Clancy said: “By the end of this decade, nearly two-thirds of the revenue budget as it existed in 2010 will have been removed.

“And all of this at a time of soaring demand for adult social care and a crisis in the NHS. This year alone, we have had to deliver £92 million of savings.

“The fact is we are spending a lot, lot less on public services now than we were seven years ago.

“Whatever the Government says, we all know the truth: cuts to public services at such unpreceden­ted levels cannot be achieved without harming those least able to look after themselves.”

He said his Labour administra­tion faced the toughest ever choices – saying the easy cuts, the obvious waste and inefficien­cies, have “long been blown away”.

“Almost a decade after the global financial crash, one thing is clear: austerity isn’t working,” he said.

“Cities like Birmingham, with the greatest needs and the greatest spending pressures, continue to suffer the greatest cuts. Austerity is destroying the very public services upon which so many Brummies rely.”

But Cllr Clancy said he remained optimistic about the future despite severe financial difficulti­es faced by the council, and pointed to a city centre “throbbing with regenerati­on”, in particular three significan­t schemes – Paradise, Smithfield and Curzon.

Austerity is destroying the very public services upon which so many Brummies rely Council leader John Clancy

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> Council leader John Clancy

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