Birmingham City Council has warned that forthcoming council tax cuts could force them to reduce the provision of services and benefits.
Anticipating losses of £11.8 million once council tax funding receives a 10% cut on 1 April 2013, Birmingham City Council has said that the simultaneous localisation of control may force them to reduce services, increase council taxes and make reductions to council tax benefits.
The town hall has appealed to the Government, urging them to defer the funding cut until 2014 and to rethink ‘an unnecessary upheaval of the system’.
Birmingham City Council has also stressed that measures necessary to deal with the administration and control of the benefit system would not be in place in the town hall, due to the limited preparation period made available to local authorities.
The council said that while it will undertake consultations on where reductions could be achieved, the protection of pensioners and other vulnerable groups would be central to its plans.
Ian Ward, deputy leader of Birmingham City Council, said: ‘The city cannot afford to make good this cut in Government funding without increasing the already severe savings it is making in all other service areas.’
‘The Government has simply passed the buck, knowing full well that councils cannot afford to absorb the shortfall and that we have no option but to pass the impact on to hard working families in our cities,’ Ward said.
