The news the news today the Cllr McKay has resigned form the cabinet over a lack of faith from city partners in Sir Albert Bore should come as no surprise to anyone. These same concerns with the Leaders office of the Council have been regularly raised with me by partners and by his backbenchers for years.
While it should be welcomed that the Cabinet are finally waking up to the trouble Birmingham City Council finds itself in, they cannot be absolved of responsibility for the mess we have got into over the last three years.
These same cabinet members who are now raising the concerns, ourselves and others have highlighted previously, are the same cabinet members who pushed through Sir Alberts botched HR changes, which had to be undone within a year. They have supported a leadership that has resulted in three independent commissioners and one improvement panel being placed upon Birmingham.
No cabinet member can say they did not know it would be like this, the mess we see now is the same mess Sir Albert created by 2004, the last time he ran the Council. Then like now Sir Albert and his cabinet have overseen a failing children services department, refuse to listen to partners and have embarked on grand projects that are massively overspending. They produce targets to show success that turn out to be fudges to hide systematic failure.
Birmingham is a great City, Birmingham should be a world leader. Birmingham City Council should be helping the City grow and companies relocate, we should be at the cutting edge of service delivery not languishing at the back.
The real change Birmingham needs can only be delivered by real change and that needs a Conservative led City Council. Today's resignation should be welcomed but until the whole leader and cabinet accept responsibility for their mess, resign and surrender control of the Council, Birmingham will never get the change it so badly needs.