A war of words has broken out between former Tory leader, Iain Duncan Smith, and Britain’s biggest council.
Conservative-led Birmingham City Council issued a scathing counter-attack on a report by Mr Duncan Smith on the city.
The authority claimed the report, Breakthrough Birmingham, from Mr Duncan Smith’s think-tank, the Centre for Social Justice, had been ‘poorly researched’ and, in some cases, ‘wholly inaccurate’. Launched in Birmingham last Thursday, the study claimed that although key areas of the city had been transformed by attracting major investment, too many residents in Birmingham were not sharing in the success, with problems of poverty and unemployment – some of the worst in the country.
It stated: ‘Despite the city’s business success, Birmingham has the highest rate of unemployment of all our core cities.’
The council’s chief executive, Stephen Hughes, hit back at the claims.
He said: ‘We feel the report clearly fails to do justice to the many improvements the city council has made to its services year-on-year.
‘That is why we feel it important to set the record straight about the improvements Birmingham City Council has been striving to make in recent years.’
Protecting the public realm without shutting it down
As Martyn's Law approaches, this free special report from LocalGov and Hill & Smith sets out how councils can protect public spaces without shutting them down.
