Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city, went bankrupt, cutting off all non-essential spending.

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Birmingham, Britain's second largest city, went bankrupt, cutting off all non-essential spending.

Iconic photo.

New Delhi:

Birmingham, Britain’s second largest city, has gone bankrupt. The local authority that runs Birmingham has declared the council bankrupt due to annual budget shortfalls. A Section 114 notice was filed here on Tuesday. All expenditure other than essential expenditure under this notice is prohibited with immediate effect. Officials have now focused their full attention on essential services only.

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Birmingham City Council, run by the opposition Labor Party and Europe’s largest local authority with more than 100 councillors, issued a Section 114 notice saying all services except vulnerable people’s protection and statutory services were being closed with immediate effect.

The council said it was in dire financial straits because it had to pay ‘equal pay obligations’, which so far total between £650 million and £760 million. But he doesn’t have the tools to accomplish this.

No funds for expenses
According to a statement issued by the council – ‘On this basis, the council’s interim director of finance, Fiona Greenway, has issued a report under section 114(3) of the Local Government Act, which confirms that the council has insufficient resources. to meet the same salary costs and currently has no other resources to meet this obligation.

Control costs
The council said – the council will tighten control on the already ongoing expenditure and hand over them to Section 151 officials to tighten the grip. The notice means that all new spending, except for protection of vulnerable people and statutory services, must stop immediately.

Mayor Andy Street of the West Midlands region, which covers Birmingham, said the news was “extremely distressing” for residents and called for an “investigation” into what happened. Street said ‘It’s no secret that local authorities up and down the country have faced significant cuts over the past decade – even though government funding has improved in recent years – and services. Keeping it up to people’s standards is a real challenge.

Birmingham council has paid out almost £1.1 billion in equal pay claims since a landmark case was brought against the authority in 2012. The UK Supreme Court ruled in favor of 174 employees, most of whom were women. – Those who missed out on the bonuses were teaching assistants, cleaners and catering staff, which were usually given to workers in male-dominated roles such as rubbish collectors and street sweepers.

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