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Birmingham City Council debt 'may be growing by £14million a month', Councillor claims
Apr 14, 2025
The Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance on Birmingham City Council has claimed that the city's ongoing bin crisis is "entirely attributable" to the "dreadful Labour administration", as residents are now living among more than 20,000 tonnes of waste.Speaking to GB News, Councillor Meirion Jenkins suggested that the £760million debt at the heart of the city’s bin strikes could be growing by up to £14million each month.FULL STORY HERE.
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0:00
Good morning to you, Councillor. This is a disaster for Birmingham, and I imagine there's now real fears over public health
0:08
Oh, exactly so, Andrew. It's a dreadful situation. As Beth just mentioned, there were 21,000 tonnes of rubbish left on the streets
0:17
although the Council claims that some of this is being collected by crews that are being brought in from neighbouring councils
0:23
And it's entirely attributable to the dreadful Labour administration that we have in Birmingham
0:30
And it all goes back to 2017, when there was another BIN strike
0:35
And in order to solve that dispute, Labour gave benefits to some of the BIN workers by introducing an intermediary grade
0:44
And at the time, we said this will cause an equal pay dispute in due course
0:50
And sure enough roll forward eight years we have an estimated 760 and professionally estimated by the way liability for equal pay of 760 million And the bin men on strike because the council in order to remove the equal pay liability are having to take away that intermediary grade three
1:08
that they should never have given them in 2017. But, Marianne, you must have watched these
1:15
councillors just kind of spend money as well. I mean, I know, unfortunately, they had to meet that
1:20
equal pay demand. But in what other ways have you seen money perhaps not be spent efficiently
1:25
to get them into this situation? Well, the problem dates right back to legislation
1:32
from the Blair era, which meant that you could compare workers who were doing quite different jobs
1:38
So if you give an advantage to people in, let's say, for example, bin collection
1:42
which is predominantly male, but you don't make that available to other workers
1:46
who may be doing an entirely different thing who are predominantly female
1:50
it potentially creates an equal pay liability. And we warned about this in 2017
1:55
And they have had eight years to put it right because they need to implement a proper grading scheme which they were supposed to do by March 25 and they still haven done And by the way for every month that we go past March 25 that million equal pay liability has been calculated
2:13
to be growing at up to £14 million a month. Can I ask you, do you not think, actually
2:19
the government are tinkering at the edges here? Why not get the army sent in
2:23
The army was deployed, I gather, by the Tories in the 1970s when there were problems with bin collection
2:28
get the army in to sort this out? Well, yeah, I mean, the thing is that I agree with the comments
2:35
that you made just now that we think this is a gesture
2:39
I mean, collecting rubbish from the streets is not the army's sweet spot anyway
2:43
and we think it's just a gesture from the government and the Labour Council to try and look serious
2:49
If they want to fix it, then they have to sort of adopt the plan
2:53
that we had offered to Labour. And by the way, Labour turned down an emergency debate
2:57
that we asked for on this bin strike because of the impact it's having on the health of
3:02
the city But there are things that could be done short of bringing in the army to collect rubbish that would significantly improve the situation All right Councillor That Councillor Marion Jenkins who the Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance and Resource
3:13
at Bermuda City Council. Of course, in the interest of balance, we have to read out a statement from the Council. The government have issued this statement
3:20
The government has already provided a number of staff to support the Council with logistics
3:24
and make sure the response on the ground is swift to address the associated public health risks
3:29
In light of the ongoing public health risk, A small number of office-based military personnel with operational planning expertise have been made available to Birmingham City Council to further support in this area
3:39
What does it tell you about the councillors if they can't organise a bin clear-up during a bin strike
3:46
And also, what I find really fascinating about these pictures, if that was my street, we'd all be just going to the tip
3:53
Where is the sense of civil pride in those areas? It's not only that the bins are still there
3:58
people are also chucking out sofas and broken microwaves and things onto the street
4:03
But Angela Rayner wants you to think the army are now on the streets clearing up the rubbish
4:06
They are not. No, they are not. It's just more Labour spin
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