Birmingham bankrupt

Mr Kobayashi said:
It costs more to collect rubbish in rural areas than a block of flats does it not?

Why have a flat rate for all areas?
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And how much does that block produce? I’d say 1 person in a farm produces way less than 100 people in a block of flats. Those 100 get to use all the same facilities as that 1 person at the farm yet the person at the farm is paying the same as 100 people! I have no idea what it costs to drive a truck to a farm to pick up one black bin, but I think it would be a damn sight cheaper than picking up and disposing of 100 peoples shite from a block of flats.
 
Blue Maverick said:
And how much does that block produce? I’d say 1 person in a farm produces way less than 100 people in a block of flats. Those 100 get to use all the same facilities as that 1 person at the farm yet the person at the farm is paying the same as 100 people! I have no idea what it costs to drive a truck to a farm to pick up one black bin, but I think it would be a damn sight cheaper than picking up and disposing of 100 peoples shite from a block of flats.
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Per capita. Aren't you arguing against yourself now?
 
RabidCity said:
Can you imagine if they were not.. rewarding themselves with unlimited payrises each year. They claim the maximum they can with a cap, without it we would see 10%+ each year.
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If central funding is cut by 10%, how do you think the councils can respond, especially after a decade of cuts in central funding?

When there is nothing left to cut, what can any council do?
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
If central funding is cut by 10%, how do you think the councils can respond, especially after a decade of cuts in central funding?

When there is nothing left to cut, what can any council do?
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Well they can do 2 things.
1 - Find efficiencies, operate effectively, challenge all areas of spend, cut waste.
2 - increase income by building more houses and attracting more businesses to the area with rate cuts. I live on a new housing estate with almost 500 houses. That's £1m a year in council tax. There's no way we consume that much resource from local government. The council haven't even bothered laying the main road after 4 years.
 
RabidCity said:
Well they can do 2 things.
1 - Find efficiencies, operate effectively, challenge all areas of spend, cut waste.
2 - increase income by building more houses and attracting more businesses to the area with rate cuts. I live on a new housing estate with almost 500 houses. That's £1m a year in council tax. There's no way we consume that much resource from local government. The council haven't even bothered laying the main road after 4 years.
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And if they’ve already done that and still have no money?
 
RabidCity said:
Well they can do 2 things.
1 - Find efficiencies, operate effectively, challenge all areas of spend, cut waste.
2 - increase income by building more houses and attracting more businesses to the area with rate cuts. I live on a new housing estate with almost 500 houses. That's £1m a year in council tax. There's no way we consume that much resource from local government. The council haven't even bothered laying the main road after 4 years.
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Stop digging. In a recent study it was found that councils had taken a huge cut in central government funding, and when you look at Birmingham specific, they’d also taken a huge hit because of Brexit as they had something like 40% exports to that area.

All you have to do is go and find the detail, it’s all there, free on t’internet.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
And if they’ve already done that and still have no money?
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So they've grown income and cut ineffective/waste? And yet still have not enough to deliver basic services?
It's just not possible they can have such income and not provide adequate services. They have failed as a local council and should step down.

Should the government continue to provide funding, even though we're spending way more than we take in already? Just loan more and sell our children's future further down the path? All public services want more. If they can't operate with what we have step aside and let someone else run it.
 
RabidCity said:
So they've grown income and cut ineffective/waste? And yet still have not enough to deliver basic services?
It's just not possible they can have such income and not provide adequate services. They have failed as a local council and should step down.

Should the government continue to provide funding, even though we're spending way more than we take in already? Just loan more and sell our children's future further down the path? All public services want more. If they can't operate with what we have step aside and let someone else run it.
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Dunno. I’ve not looked at their accounts. They have and have said they can’t do anything else.

They're not the first council to say this and won’t be the last. It’s almost like there is a central funding cut that councils can’t cope anymore.
 
The Future’s Blue! said:
Stop digging. In a recent study it was found that councils had taken a huge cut in central government funding, and when you look at Birmingham specific, they’d also taken a huge hit because of Brexit as they had something like 40% exports to that area.

All you have to do is go and find the detail, it’s all there, free on t’internet.
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And this is only being realised now? Why didn't they make drastic changes? If I lost 40% of my income, i'd downsize my house, stop all luxuries and look at all options to grow my income back to where it was.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
Dunno. I’ve not looked at their accounts. They have and have said they can’t do anything else.

They're not the first council to say this and won’t be the last. It’s almost like there is a central funding cut that councils can’t cope anymore.
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It's not in doubt that they are being squeezed, but if there's not the income (for either brexit, mismanagement by this idiotic government, covid, wasteful barges, rampant inflation) then there's no option. We need to rationalise spend as a country until we're in a position to increase it.
 
RabidCity said:
It's not in doubt that they are being squeezed, but if there's not the income (for either brexit, mismanagement by this idiotic government, covid, wasteful barges, rampant inflation) then there's no option. We need to rationalise spend as a country until we're in a position to increase it.
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It needs increasing now. In lots of areas.

Lots of grown up debates need to happen, and soon.
 
RabidCity said:
And this is only being realised now? Why didn't they make drastic changes? If I lost 40% of my income, i'd downsize my house, stop all luxuries and look at all options to grow my income back to where it was.
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Only so much that you can cut.

As for downsizing, it’s hard to say when you’ve moved from your mansion to a social housing bedsit. Just like your new house, waiting for the road that is down to the developer to build, the council adopting it later. You seem to think the council should take on those costs, they‘ be even skinter.
 
Alan Harper's Tash said:
It needs increasing now. In lots of areas.

Lots of grown up debates need to happen, and soon.
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Interested in your thoughts on what we change (either increase tax / or cut other areas) to make this work as a country and allow that funding? £110bn this year is paying of debt because we didn't manage effectively in prior years. That could be going to councils, paying for NHS pay increases etc.
 
RabidCity said:
Interested in your thoughts on what we change (either increase tax / or cut other areas) to make this work as a country and allow that funding? £110bn this year is paying of debt because we didn't manage effectively in prior years. That could be going to councils, paying for NHS pay increases etc.
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Me? I’d drop Trident and HS2.
 
The Future’s Blue! said:
Only so much that you can cut.

As for downsizing, it’s hard to say when you’ve moved from your mansion to a social housing bedsit. Just like your new house, waiting for the road that is down to the developer to build, the council adopting it later. You seem to think the council should take on those costs, they‘ be even skinter.
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The main road leading to the estate is waiting to be surfaced by the council. The builders have been excellent, providing nice walking paths around the estate, upfront donations to the council for local park improvements as part of the permission to build here.

Birmingham spent millions on a botched IT system and owe millions back to women who they didn't pay fairly. Yet they are still there. Why? Need to walk away and let someone else run it.
 
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