Suzanne Muna, Unite South West EC member
The Unite Executive Council (EC) met just days after the announcement was received that Birmingham City Council, one of the biggest in Europe, was declaring itself “effectively bankrupt”.
A number of issues were raised in the EC discussion, including the fact that it was blaming equal pay claims as being among the reasons.
Other councils are likely to follow. These ‘bankruptcies’ will have industrial significance for our members working in local government, and in the supply chains of goods and services. Jobs will be at risk and councils will use the financial hardship to push back even harder against pay claims across the country. There will also be a massive impact on the communities within those local authorities.
Unite has a policy position of calling for legal no-cuts needs-based budgets; for councils to use their reserves and borrowing powers to stave off cuts, while building a campaign to win the necessary funding from government.
We called for an urgent meeting to be organised between Unite and Angela Rayner, who is now Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities. The demand should be for a pledge from Labour that if it forms the next government, it will adequately fund councils and will underwrite any debt that Birmingham or other councils in that position have to take on, in order to prevent cuts and to deliver equal pay and good quality services.
