Local Government Correspondent Neil Elkes looks at the increasingly strained relationship between Whitehall and Birmingham.

When David Cameron and Nick Clegg formed the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition and walked into Downing Street side-by-side last spring, civic leaders in Birmingham would have been among the loudest to cheer.

After all, this city had been running fairly successfully under the same political colours for six years. The leadership team of Mike Whitby and Paul Tilsely were quick to congratulate and offer their advice to the national counterparts.

But nine months on the relationship between the coalition Government and Britain’s largest local authority is anything but a love-in and it seems the old mistrust between Whitehall and the town hall is as strong as ever.

After weeks of grumbling behind the scenes the signs of division are becoming more and more public, especially as the council starts to implement unpopular cuts.

Only two weeks ago deputy leader Paul Tilsley joined other Liberal Democrat councillors in an open letter criticising Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles for his “gunboat diplomacy” and “draconian” cut in the council’s financial settlement.

In the budget press briefing Coun Tilsley (Sheldon) went on to say: “I have been lobbying hard on the city’s behalf with the Government in particular for additional freedoms that would come from Tax Increment Financing, which would allow us to borrow against future business rate income.”

Probably not surprisingly, that lobbying came to nothing and Birmingham suffered, along with the other major cities, a large cut in Government funding.

Coun Tilsely is not alone. His cabinet colleague in charge of education Les Lawrence (Con Northfield) complained bitterly at the latest vulnerable children scrutiny committee that Education Secretary Michael Gove had “turned a deaf ear” to Birmingham’s and the Local Government Association’s request for closer ties between school governing bodies and education authorities.

Coun Lawrence has been open in disagreeing with much of Mr Gove’s decisions, whether it is over cutting the Building Schools for the Future programme, which cost the city £500,000, or proposals for the Government to seize control of state school funding.