Leader offers rosier assessment - and an apology

The leader of Birmingham City Council has given a positive assessment of the authority's finances while also offering an apology as he considers Birmingham's fortunes one week out from a looming anniversary.

After a sustained period of high-profile, financial turmoil, the authority on Monday pushed through its first balanced budget in three years, although it needed two attempts.

Councillor John Cotton, Labour, said passing the £4.4bn budget meant the city was "back to a stable financial footing".

But speaking to BBC WM earlier, he also apologised that there had been no breakthrough on the longstanding bin strike, for which all-out industrial action reaches the one-year mark next Wednesday.

Cotton told the BBC he was "keen to resolve the dispute" with members of Unite.

He said his message to the union was that the "door was open to sensible negotiations".

He added that his message to residents was: "I'm really sorry we've not been able to reach a negotiated settlement yet, but let me assure you we're continuing to push for that, but it has to be done on the basis of a settlement that doesn't create the financial difficulties that almost sank this council altogether.

"That wouldn't be fair on any citizen of Birmingham."

The budget was passed on Monday a week after the original plan was held up when Cotton's group did not have the support to get it through.

Labour eventually got its way with 40 votes to 37, with support from the Liberal Democrats who had several amendments agreed.

At the time of the adjourned proceedings last week, opposition leader Robert Alden, Conservative, said: "Birmingham deserves better than a failing administration that can't even get its own budget over the line.

"After bankrupting the city and letting services crumble, Labour has lost the confidence of councillors and the public alike."

The authority declared itself effectively bankrupt in 2023 due to a financial black hole linked in part to equal pay liabilities.

Huge tax hikes followed for residents in the bid to plug a gap running into hundreds of millions of pounds.

The latest budget includes a further but smaller 4.99% tax increase.

Referring to a new funding formula from central government that in his view had assisted the council in its bid to provide services while weathering financial pressures, Cotton told the BBC that Birmingham was being "funded fairly for the first time in 15 years".

As for recycling collections, Cotton would not commit to a start date for them to be reactivated amid the disruption, but said one of the reasons the authority needed to reshape the city's recycling service was that uptake rates were too low, adding that was the case prior to any industrial action.

"We've had a historically low recycling rate and we need to drive that up. That's why we're shortly bringing in food waste collections, we're launching pilots for that in the next few weeks," he said.

The leader added: "Because we are in industrial action we're unable to offer the full range of services."

He said that was "why we need a sensible negotiated settlement, but that requires movement on both sides".