The Labour-led Birmingham City Council has declared itself “effectively insolvent” after being hit with a £760 million bill to settle equal pay claims. These are the same people who splashed thousands renaming their streets to be more ‘inclusive’. “I’m afraid there is no money… although at least we still have Diversity Grove”…

The local authority apologised for the “failure to get this situation under control” and warned residents that there “will be significantly fewer resources available in the future compared to previous years and we will need to reprioritise where we spend taxpayers’ money“. The Council is Europe’s largest local authority, and the insolvency means all services other than statutory services will stop immediately. At least the Council found time to name ‘Equality Road’, ‘Respect Way’, and ‘Humanity Close’…

UPDATE: Local sources tell Guido there’s lots of blame being put at door of Richard Brooks, an ex-Ed Balls SpAd who’s now Birmingham’s Director of Strategy, Equalities and Partnerships. The rumour is he promised he could manage the equal pay claim issue, and instead has allowed it to blow up after spending “all his time and more money on an open data observatory gimmick“. Guido’s mole says “he was appointed to one of most senior officer positions on the council on six figure salary despite no track record in management or local government.” The blame game begins…

UPDATE II: The £760m equal pay bill does not stem from the 2012 court case previously stated in this story. This was resolved at the time – though is still being paid off). The £760m figure (which may be higher, given new claims have now been submitted) is in addition to this, and comes from decisions made by the Council to settle the industrial dispute in the waste service in 2017/18, and then during and after COVID to reintroduce ‘task and finish’ arrangements for crews which has been seen as given waste crews preferential treatment over other (female-dominated) roles.