Birmingham bankrupt

[threespires]

Local Govt is funded by taxes, so not entirely sure how else the problem will be solved. Perhaps if we hadn’t spent years underfunding local Govt - and pretty much everything else - we wouldn't be in this mess.

We voted in people who promised to underfund public services so you can’t say they didn’t deliver on their promises :)

It's not like they weren't open about it either. They have made it very clear all along that they wanted to shrink this malign and nebulously defined entity 'the state'.

Had voters read the small print they would have noticed the bits of the state they were interested in shrinking were the bits that did useful things for people on a local and daily basis and the bits they were interested in preserving were the centralised elements that allowed them to exercise control and authority. Oh and the bit where they would use that control to introduce chaotic profiteering opportunities for their allies once they had created the void in the services being provided.

 

[Vic]

They do ..... but for some reason there's not as much noise.

View attachment 92668

Lest we forget. This is how the Tories stopped Surrey going bust 6 years ago.

Surrey council 'sweetheart deal': Leader David Hodge 'to stay'

David Hodge has faced calls to step down amid claims he was given 'special access' to ministers.

www.bbc.co.uk

And now?

Council fears 'bankruptcy' over Government's social care reforms

The cost to the council could be as high as £3.2billion over a ten year period

www.getsurrey.co.uk

 

[Man_City_Loyal]

I can see Manchester heading like Birmingham in the next 10 years.

 

[Vic]

Tax cuts benefit only the rich.
I've never understood why anyone who relies on government services (that's probably 95% of us) would vote for low tax, and consequently, low spending on essential services yet a lot of ordinary people have bought into this hype.
The chickens seem to be coming home to roost.

The sacred cows are coming home to roost with a vengeance.

 

[Vic]

...

There are lots of perhaps, but here we are. Perhaps every council in the country could down tools and declare bankruptcy, that'll show them hey ?

Give it a year....

 

[MouldensChippy]

Give it a year....

And who will this hit the hardest, who will worry the most, the employees at the top of the payscale with their payoff options, or the cooks, cleaners, waste disposal operatives, and general office staff ?

 

[MouldensChippy]

If a local authority cannot meet its obligations then it will declare bankruptcy. The alternative is increased funding from the national Govt and/or local taxation. The problem is lack of money and the solution is more money. And the source of that money is tax revenue either directly or indirectly.

Long term the solution is to fund local governments properly and employ good managers and administrators and enough of them to the job. This will also cost money.

Everything else is just pointless whining.

Ah, unlimited funding, I wish that I was smart enough to think of that. People don't have unlimited pockets though, and who do you think will be the worst hit, as a percentage of their disposable income, would be ?

It's easy to spend tax cash, particularly when you face no repercussions, or won't accept any responsibilities !

 

[BrianW]

People need to get real.

You cannot run a modern, advanced democracy on the cheap.
The 'small state' fantasy is just that. COVID-19 demonstrated why we need an effective state.

The main problems are:

The country is broke, in part due to temporary issues like the war in Ukraine, but also because of the permanent damage caused to our economy by the stupidity that is Brexit.

We have a government made up of clueless incompetents, mired in corruption.

We have not yet realised that the answer to every problem is not to issue a lucrative contract to the private sector.

The very mechanisms of government, central and local, but especially local, have been decimated by years and years of cutting back and 'reforms'. Many of the most competent staff have retired, and the ones coming through lack the experience or the training to cope. Training? What's that? It costs money!

The Tories have fragmented some services, the education service being an excellent example. Imagine, the delivery of temporary classrooms to schools because of the concrete crisis has to be managed directly from Whitehall because there's no other effective way of doing it. The mind boggles! The people down there don't know where half the schools are!

There are too many tax-dodging cheats, encouraged by the Tories. No need to increase taxes if the existing taxes were collected in full.

In short, this country is fucked. It needs someone like Cromwell to sort it out. That is someone with his drive, determination and incorruptibility, but minus the religious obsession. We don't have anyone remotely like that, just a collection of mediocre nobodies and a wide selection of clueless charlatans.

 

[Vic]

And who will this hit the hardest, who will worry the most, the employees at the top of the payscale with their payoff options, or the cooks, cleaners, waste disposal operatives, and general office staff ?

Park rangers. They were the first to go....

Seriously, you seem to be supporting the whole Tory austerity spiel that efficiency savings will make up for the entire withdrawal of government support grants, or that sacking a manager or two would do the trick.

It's nonsense.

 

[MouldensChippy]

Park rangers. They were the first to go....

Seriously, you seem to be supporting the whole Tory austerity spiel that efficiency savings will make up for the entire withdrawal of government support grants, or that sacking a manager or two would do the trick.

It's nonsense.

Wow, you really fail to comprehend, is that on purpose, or because you are so entrenched ?

Where have I supported the Tories, show me, because as far as I'm concerned they are just equal and opposite to what you're proposing, talk of boom and bust never ending. Do you not see that both of our main parties are as guilty of divide and conquer as each other ?

Views that differ from yours are not tory defacto just because you wish them to be. I got called a tory in here for offering a view that was more socialist than the Labour party offers from some of the comedians that inhabit the political subforum !

It's a shame that subjects like the biggest council in Europe going bankrupt have to be moved into this subforum. The third post on this subject was.........
"Imagine that, the Tories allowing a Labour run council to go bust...."