Birmingham Local Conservatives have submitted a motion to January’s full council meeting at Birmingham City Council calling for the dates of the planned public inquiry into the Council’s equal pay crisis to be formally set as beginning no later than September ’24, reporting by December ’25.
Since the public inquiry into Labour’s equal pay crisis was announced on the 5th of July, little progress has been made. So far the council has yet to finalise the terms of reference and has not agreed to a date when this vital inquiry will happen. The opposition of Birmingham City Council is bringing this motion to ensure the speedy starting and conclusion of this inquiry.
Cllr Robert Alden said,
"It is clear that for the Council to be able to learn the lessons of the Labour Administration’s failure over the last decade, the promised public inquiry into Labour's Equal Pay crisis must start ASAP. Both the Council and residents must be aware of the outcomes of that inquiry. It is vital that as the Labour-run Council try to fix the mess of the Council's finances they have made, that they don't repeat those same catastrophic failures".
Cllr Ewan Mackey said,
"John Cotton promised to be open and transparent about the problems facing the Council but to start doing that he needs to take responsibility for the state of his Council. Currently, it is the residents of our city who will suffer, with Labour's 21% increase in Council Tax over two years, whilst services collapse. This is why the inquiry needs to be held urgently AND completed. Only when they accept the cause of the problem can they start to put in place measures to fix it. If they don't do this, it will only get worse for residents, not better".
Cllr Mackey continued,
“We urge all Councillors to put residents first and back our call for the inquiry to start this year and conclude by the end of 2025 at the very latest".
Cllr Alden concluded,
“The Council have a history of continually kicking the can down the road. As the responsible opposition on the Council, we are bringing this motion to Full Council calling for the inquiry into Labour's Equal Pay Crisis to be started urgently, and completed in a timely manner, so that the lessons of their failure can be avoided next time as Labour again seek to change staff contracts at Birmingham City Council”.
The Council has been gripped by a series of crises over last year, including a £800 million equal pay liability.
On the 3rd of February, at least 3 senior councillors, including the current Leader and Cabinet Member of Finance, were emailed informing them of an equal pay liability of up to £800m. This information was not disclosed to Full Council during the budget meeting of the 28th of February and equal pay was given a 0% risk rating at the time. In March, the council admitted there was a potential for other equal pay claims, though claimed they were unable to quantify the exact figure.
In May, the council finally admitted to a figure of over £760 million. Since this, Cllr John Cotton, one of three recipients of the February 3rd email, has claimed to have been surprised to learn of the scale of the equal pay liability upon becoming Leader. What followed has been called a “summer of indecision”, as Cllr Cotton cancelled several meetings where a course of action was to be decided concerning a new job evaluation scheme, ultimately leading to S114 notice being issued. Cllr Cotton was on holiday in New York at the time, despite knowing an S114 notice was due to be issued.
