Right-wing rebellion gathers pace at Birmingham City Council

Apr 24 2009 by Paul Dale, Birmingham Post

Rebellious right-wingers on Birmingham City Council are becoming increasingly concerned about what they regard as the local authority’s lurch toward municipal socialism.

Since taking control in June 2004 the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, led by Tory wet Mike Whitby, has managed to push through spending projects that Labour only dreamt of. The new library, the Olympic swimming pool, New Street Station, council house improvements – all paid for out of the public purse.

The municipal bank bubbles away in the background, with a potential £200 million bill.

It’s all part of Whitby’s ambition to become the new Joe Chamberlain, leaving his stamp on Birmingham with a portfolio of fine public buildings.

And now another running sore for the Tory right has reared its ugly head in the shape of the council’s disgraceful treatment of the owners of private sector residential and nursing homes.

While the council is prepared to pour money into its own homes, which are in such a poor condition that they are all in line to be demolished anyway, private home owners are being starved of cash.

A one per cent increase in the amount of money the council is prepared to pay the private sector to look after local authority clients hardly seems fair when the council at the same time increases fees for its own homes by between seven and 30 per cent.

To make matters worse, the council is operating a near monopoly. While private homes provide about 75 per cent of total bed spaces in Birmingham, they rely to a large extent on about 3,000 council clients to fill those spaces.

Cabinet adults and communities member Sue Anderson, a Liberal Democrat, easily saw off a scrutiny committee inquiry the other day, insisting that it was necessary to “accrue some income from people who can afford to pay”.

Meanwhile, her press officer, was briefing that private home owners were running businesses and making a profit so it was only natural that they would try to squeeze more money out of the council during a recession.

Astonishingly, Coun Anderson insisted the latest miserly increase in fees for private homes narrowed the gap between private and public sector charges.

Perhaps she misunderstood the question she was being asked. But even the meanest brain can understand that a once per cent increase for private homes and a seven per cent increase for council homes makes the funding gap even larger.

Sutton Coldfield Tory councilllor Anne Underwood spoke for her disgruntled colleagues, claiming that the treatment of private care home owners amounted to a “disgrace”. She is right.