Birmingham Council to cut 1,200 jobs

Birmingham City Council has warned that 1,200 jobs could be lost in a bid to generate savings of £250 million over the next four years. 

The Council revealed that ‘difficult decisions’ were needed in order to balance its books in the Council’s budget consultation. 
Councillor John Clancy said local government would see a ‘profound change’ over the next few years. He added: “We will have more independence, but there are also big questions about how this will impact on the resources available in Birmingham and the additional responsibilities councils will be expected to undertake in return.

“New city-regional leadership will be put in place through the Combined Authority, with new powers devolved from central government to allow us to drive economic growth and investment.

“The Council’s organisation will become much more strategic and much smaller and there will be important changes to the ways that people can engage in their local community, such as the new local council for Sutton Coldfield.”

However, trade union GMB counselled that changes to terms and conditions were likely to negatively impact staff who did retain their council jobs. 
Gill Whittaker, GMB organiser, said: “The majority of savings generated from the Council's proposals come at the expense of ordinary council workers. Again, this is either through further job losses, outsourcing, reductions in pay or attacks on sick pay.”

Stuart Richards, GMB senior organiser, added: “The Council is now proposing to remove workers from national agreements and to attack what's left of their terms and conditions. This is not the way to cope with this funding crisis and GMB will continue to fight for our members working across the Council.”