Labour-run Birmingham City Council is cutting nearly 30% from its already stretched housing budget. The news was revealed at the Homes overview & scrutiny committee on the 21st of September 2023. The cuts are being made in light of the £760 million equal pay liability facing the council created by Labour mismanagement. This comes only months after the Regulator for Social Housing’s report found there are serious problems with Birmingham City Council’s social housing stock. At the time of publishing, tens of thousands of homes had missed crucial safety checks, and the City Council had been found in breach of consumer standards. This was broken down into; 17000 asbestos checks missed,15500 electrical safety checks missed, 1000 fire safety checks missed, 1000 customer complaints overdue. Almost 40% of the social housing stock in Birmingham does not meet the government’s “Decent Homes Standard”, compared to only 2% under the last Conservative-led administration. There were 428 tenants waiting for emergency repairs and a backlog of over 1000 additional repairs also at the time of the report's publishing.
Paul Langford, the interim strategic director for city housing, said that these cuts were “..not without risk, and not without impact [on services]”. He also noted that the current budget did not take into account the usual in-year winter pressures, which will add further strain to the budget. Mr Langford said that the department had been working closely with the relevant Cabinet Member, Cllr Jane Francis, to identify where cuts could be made.
Cllr Francis, (Lab, Harborne) – who described the situation as “not all doom and gloom” – repeatedly spoke about “political priorities” and the need to protect front-line services from a “political perspective”.
Cllr Robert Alden (Con, Erdington), Leader of the Opposition & Birmingham Local Conservatives said, “It’s simply astonishing that given Labour's housing crisis we have here in Birmingham under this Labour administration they would look to cut the budget by close to 30%! There are 23,000 homes in Birmingham which do not meet the “decent homes standard”. Instead of cutting over £7 million from the housing budget, the council should be looking to cutting out waste and loss which it too readily ignores – £17m a year on consultants, the £100m overspend on their Oracle IT rollout, or the potential £250k worth of lost IT equipment. The simple reality is this: had the Labour administration gotten a grip of these situations and done their job, this wouldn’t be happening. For those people affected, this won't be so much pulling the rug out from under their feet, but more ripping the roof off from over their heads”.
Cllr Ken Wood (Con, Sutton Walmley and Minworth), Shadow Cabinet Member for Housing and Homelessness, said, “The cabinet member tries to gloss over it by saying it's Not all doom and gloom! Try telling residents who have been waiting years for new kitchens and bathrooms that! You could get a lot done with the £7m now having to be saved due to Labour's complete failure to tackle the Equal Pay issue that they've known about for years. We’ve got officers working day and night to solve these issues and deliver the services residents deserve. The Labour cabinet needs to stop refusing to make a decision and start working constructively with these officers.”
