Jay Singh-Sohal

Originally published on ConservativeHome.com

I am a product of Birmingham City Council (BCC) in a number of significant ways.  My father has worked as a social worker there for more than three decades.  My mother was a council cook at care homes for the elderly.  Growing up in an inner-city area, to keep me away from trouble I was sent to council-run youth centres and libraries.  As a teen I walked along the streets of Handsworth and Lozells, the scene of “race-riots” during the 80s, to council-run leisure centres.

So for me, BCC was the invisible hand that shaped my upbringing, through the livelihood it gave my parents and the community services it provided for those like me in particular, from less privileged backgrounds and raised in areas of social and economic inequity and facing potential crime and gangs on our streets.

BCC also made me a Conservative.  My parents worked hard for the basics, my father in particular rehabilitated people with sight-loss by day and, after a few hours of sleep, would then do night shifts at homes for children in care.  So I was raised deeply mindful of the importance of community as well as faith, why strong family structures matter, equality of opportunity and respect for the law in particular.  Staunch conservative principles.

Now, as a Sutton Coldfield resident and therefore local BCC taxpayer (more later on this) I know the potential difficulties facing people from my own socio-economic background who rely on the council’s services.  It heaps pressure on the many good, dedicated social workers looking after the young, the vulnerable and frail in Britain’s second city.  And it risks a generation of young people not getting the local help or support they need to survive and find opportunities to grow socially and economically.

I’m therefore lamenting the failure of BCC and outraged that Labour has let down the city’s 1.1 million residents.  The blame for bankruptcy rests solely on successive Labour council leaders who created unequal working practices and then failed to take action needed to address the issues it caused.  The bill, according to reports, is now around £1.1bn, and still growing, it relates only to the last six years.  The mammoth cost to the taxpayer is just one extreme example of their party’s reckless attitudes towards spending other people’s money, both in Birmingham and beyond.  Taxpayers money.  The current Labour council leader, who was brought in after Keir Starmer’s putsch to remove the last one, has had months to pull together a plan.  But Labour instead delayed making a decision, postponing meeting after meeting, in a desperate attempt to kick the issue to the right rather than face the music.

The convenient answer for them might be to now raise Birmingham council tax, local opposition parties on the left are already pushing for it to  be levied on the wealthiest in the city to try to balance the books.  No doubt the pressure will be placed by Labour locally and nationally on the Government for intervention and a sizable bail out.  After all, it’s what they do to pass the buck on responsibility.

Conservatives should be mindful of this, and respond by being both bold and forward-thinking to turn the Labour crisis into an opportunity to deliver upon Conservative devolution plans locally.  This is a chance to ensure Conservative-led areas in BCC are not left worse off but rather empowered to deliver more council-functions, better, locally.  I am talking about one of the UKs largest town councils, with a population of 100,000 residents, The Royal Town of Sutton, where I live and have long campaigned to protect our local services including our police station.

Royal Sutton Coldfield Town Council (RSCTC) is new, formally created in 2016 as a Town Council, and a success story for how to deliver local decision-making as close to residents and taxpayers as possible.  RSCTC makes local planning decisions, funds local community groups and is currently working on a new strategy for redeveloping the town centre area.  It is receiving millions of pounds of investment (including for a new transport hub) through the efforts of the West Midlands Mayor Andy Street and our dedicated MP Andrew Mitchell.  And is capably controlled by local Conservatives, led by Cllr Simon Ward, with a Cabinet that does an excellent job of protecting our local heritage and environment (particularly our highly-prized Sutton Park) while holding Labour to account at the local authority level as well as the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC).

We Suttonians value our Town Council for the work it does, and we local Conservatives know if we are to deliver better for residents then we must do more for and through our Town Council.  Some functions currently held at BCC would be better performed through RSCTC because Sutton Councillors and officers know much better when administering them locally due to their closer connection to the area and local issues residents face, as opposed to the bureaucrats at Birmingham who are often found to be too distant, impersonal and inefficient.  These functions include: allotments, bus shelters and services, change of use of land, conference and community centres, recycling (which could be synchronised with the Veolia household recycling facility in the Royal Town), provision of newsletters and public information (we no longer have a local free newspaper), ownership and maintenance of open spaces, recreation grounds and our park, encouraging local tourism and looking after our war memorials.

There are, nonetheless, services and functions that should remain at BCC level and provided for Sutton Coldfield residents by Birmingham, for there are economies of scale that can be achieved by Europe’s largest local authority.  These include education, highways, general refuse, drainage and water,the arts sector, baths and leisure facilities.

Funding more localised services could be achieved through the town council precept that is levied in our council tax bill.  Currently this is £49.96 for a band-D property, which has not changed since 2022/23.  A fixed amount from the collective council tax that BCC takes could be rebated to the Royal Town. This is currently £1,415.07 for a band-D property, up 3% under Labour since the previous year alone and likely to rise further. 

Already Sutton residents contribute an ever-increasing amount from our council tax to BCC, because of the high number of Band A to D properties within the affluent areas of our eight wards.  The amount has grown from £63m in 2019 to £71m in 2022, and represents 15% of the total council tax billed to Birmingham residents in the last financial year.  Birmingham relies on Sutton Coldfield in other ways too, we do not dodge or delay the contribution as seen in our comparatively very low percentage of outstanding payments.

We Suttonians often go ignored and overlooked by Labour-dominated Birmingham.  And we risk suffering the same fate as the Labour-held council areas when BCC is unable to provide the local services we require, collect the refuse on time, and look after our vulnerable.

Already we face Labour’s failures from decisions made by the PCC, which across the West Midlands as a whole has seen our local police tax precept rise by 104% over the past decade whilst total recorded crime annually is also up 113% from 2012 to 2022.  And Sutton Coldfield Police Station still faces the threat of closure next year.

Birmingham City Council’s financial mishandling and lack of a plan has alarmed my fellow residents.  Local Suttonian voters and taxpayers will now want to be assured that they are not once more having to fork out for failures emanating from Labour in the city centre. To fix the billion pound hole in its books, Birmingham will have to either raise local taxes, sell off some of its prized assets (which might include its stake in Birmingham Airport) or receive Government help.  It could be a combination of all three.  But in seeking any support from the centre, we should require Sutton Coldfield Town Council now be given more control over local services and functions so that we Conservatives locally may better serve residents and taxpayers in the Royal Town, now and well into the future.