Javid hits out at authority as Whitehall slashes funds

BIRMINGHAM City Council faces a £50 million cut in funding from government over two years.

But Local Government Secretary Sajid Javid hit out at the council in the House of Commons, saying it could do more with its money and pointing out that city has one of the highest levels of funding.

Mr Javid said: “Birmingham actually has one of the highest core spending powers per dwelling in the country. And if it was a betterrun local authority, then it would be able to do a lot more with it.”

The city’s ‘settlement funding’ will be cut from £512.3 million in 2017-18, to £462 million in 2019-20.

However, total funding is expected to grow when increases to council tax are taken into account. This includes the social care precept. The city will collect £347.7 million in council tax in 2019-20 if it increases bills by the highest amount allowed. It will also receive a dedicated £60.3 million government grant to improve social care and is likely to get £7.9 million to build new homes.

It means Birmingham’s total funding will increase from £879.5 million in 2017-18 to £888.6 million in 2019-20, a rise of one per cent over two years, though that is likely to be less than the rate of inflation.

Government figures show that spending power per household in Birmingham will be £2,022 by 2019-20, one of the highest rates in the country. Solihull, for example, will have spending power of £1,624 per household.

Birmingham has suffered a series of problems which have raised questions about management.

Former chief executive Mark Rogers left at the end of February after being blamed for the failure to deliver cuts and balance the council budget. He had also been publicly critical of the government’s continued austerity programme.