Report on Brexit effects in city is blocked again

A REPORT on the impact of Brexit on Birmingham has been blocked for a second time by the city council, which has now claimed it was never finished.

Last month it emerged the council had directed its European and International Affairs team to explore the potential fallout of the leave vote prior to the referendum in June 2016.

It was stopped from being released to avoid influencing the vote but now, nearly two years on, the authority has backtracked, saying the report never made it past draft form.

The council has rejected a subsequent Freedom of Information request to see the document.

It confirmed it was only ever shared with a scrutiny chair as well as former chief executive Mark Rogers, who ultimately prevented the initial findings being released publicly by deciding to abandon the report instead.

The FoI response said: “The report was only ever a draft report shared with the Chair of Scrutiny and the Chief Executive at the time. The report was incomplete, not approved/signed off by any Senior Manager and did not progress beyond its first drafting stage.

“The decision not to progress with a full report was taken by the Chief Executive at that time.”

Heather Law, senior programme coordinator on the European and International Affairs team, had confirmed the report’s existence when addressing the council’s Economy, Skills and Transport Overview and Scrutiny Committee in April.

Councillor Sir Albert Bore (Lab, Ladywood) lamented the lack of a detailed report, arguing that authorities in Essex and Manchester had released such documents.

He argued that huge Birmingham firms such as Deutsche Bank in Brindleyplace will be significantly affected if Britain leaves the EU customs union.

“We need to put something on the table that says ‘these are the potential implications of Brexit’, ” Cllr Bore said at the time.