Birmingham City Council duly voted through Labour’s budget this week, the first of the new administration.

Nationally, Labour love to criticise a broad range of government spending cuts, but hardly ever identify which service they would cut, or tax they would raise instead. Its unrealistic, misleading and frankly dishonest politics. So, I’m glad to say that the Lib Dem group on the Council, when putting forward their alternative, were quite specific, both about where they would spend more, and where they would find the necessary savings to keep the Council’s budget balanced (which has to be done by law).

The Lib Dems would spend more money as follows (with the cost over the next 3 years):

* Restoring full council tax benefit for those currently eligible (£6.3m)
* Restoring community chest to £100k per ward (£6m)
* Restoring special street collections (£1.2m)
* Removing extra charges for bulky waste collections (£0.6m)
* Restoring bin bag distribution (£3m)
* Improving street cleansing (£0.96m)
* Cancelling charges for green waste collection (£5.4m)
* Restoring ‘Your City Your Birmingham’ (£1.314m)
* Phasing in Food Waste Collection (£5m)
* Restoring Youth Services Funding (£3.9m)
* Protecting Youth Offending Services (£1.2m)
* One off sum for Moseley Baths (subject to a Lottery Grant of £5m) (£3m)
* Adding a long-term worklessness initiative to the youth unemployment fund (£2m)

Together the total extra cost of these spending plans would be just under £40m over three years. It would be raised by:

* Cancelling the purchase of wheeled bins £20m
* Deleting funding from the Birmingham Charter for Social Responsibility (£14.831m)
* Deleting funding for transition to wheeled bins (£1m)
* Targeting improved collection of Council Tax from former students (£2.5m)
* Targeting increased income generation through advertising (£1.5m)

In total these changes would save just under £40m, to cover the extra spending.

The main items are therefore abandoning the shift to wheeled bins; moving instead to a weekly food waste collection (this would require central government approval) and abandoning the costly Birmingham Charter for Social Responsibility. The headline implication of this, is that the Council would no longer seek to impose a duty on its contractors of paying the living wage (they would still of course have to pay the minimum wage). This move, while worthy in theory, is riven with difficulties and extra contractual costs, which can be better spent elsewhere. We would retain the living wage for City Council employees.

Attending the Acocks Green Neighbourhood Forum this week, it was clear just how concerned residents are by the rising tide of litter on our streets. Our proposals would address that. We would also protect many of the poorest in society by continuing full Council Tax relief, which Labour plans to end. Moreover we would stop the halving of Community Chest, while investing more in the Council’s plans to tackle worklessness.

Times are hard, but this is a better way of spending the Council’s limited resources.