Councillor jokes about selling Lord Mayor's gold chain to pay for Birmingham's equal pay bill
A councillor has joked about selling the Lord Mayor’s gold chain for scrap to pay for Birmingham's equal pay bill.
Birmingham City Council’s finance oversight committee met on Thursday to discuss the deepening financial crisis amid an £87 million revenue shortfall and an equal pay bill amounting to £760 million.
There are fears, as a result, vital services may be cut and council tax may rise.
The authority will also consider selling off some of its property assets which equate to more than £2.4 billion.
During the Finance and Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee this afternoon (July 27) Cllr Paul Tilsley, Liberal Democrat for Sheldon, requested a list of assets the council has that it could ‘dispose’ of.
He said: "I’m not too sure how many Birmingham City councillors would want the Lord Mayor’s gold chain, it’s probably got a scrap value but I wouldn’t go there if I was you."
The city council estimates it owns 26,000 acres, including 40% of all land within the municipal boundary.
It includes 6,500 property assets (excluding housing, infrastructure and schools) which has a value of over £2.4 billion.
In a statement Birmingham City Council said: “We have previously published updates on actions already taken and how we plan to stabilise the council's finances, ensuring that staff, partners, councillors and the public are kept up to date with our plans as they move forward.
“As we acknowledged from the start, there will be significantly fewer resources available in the future compared to previous years and we will need to reprioritise where we spend taxpayers’ money, and as soon as we have detailed spending plans they will be shared.”
A leading equal pay lawyer, who represented women who were underpaid in Birmingham dating back to 2012 called for the government to step in to bail out the authority.
Stefan Cross said: "It appears that they've (BCC) reverted back to exactly the same problems in exactly the same pay systems that they had on which we all agreed were unlawful and allowed to seep back into the and infect their entire system again.
"With councils as large as Birmingham's, when you dug a hole this deep, you need the assistance of the national government because it's just too big for them to sort out where the blame lies for getting themselves in this situation.
“At the end of the day, why should the individual women suffer? And indeed, why should the community of Birmingham suffer from their services because of mistakes made by the local administration?"
The government appears to reject that suggestion.
A Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities spokesperson said: "Councils are responsible for managing their finances. We are in contact with Birmingham City Council regarding an independent governance review and discussions are ongoing."