Austerity has been a plague affecting the people of Birmingham since 2010; every service imaginable has been slashed. It’s been 16 years, and nothing has changed. When the Tories were in power, Labour councillors claimed that they couldn’t do anything but now that Labour is in power, cuts are continuing; nothing has changed.
Not only has over £650m been cut from services, but £250m assets have also been sold at an undervalued price under the asset disposal income, with at least £500m more planned. The money earned is not enough to justify selling valuable assets. It’s almost like they want to give it away for free. As socialists, we believe these are worth keeping.
Selling assets and underfunding services have left the infrastructure rotten, creating severe issues across every aspect of life. What remains is a skeleton of the once decently funded infrastructure. The Green Party are posing as the main viable alternative to Reform and the right, but they are barely better than Labour or Tories. They won’t tackle austerity going by their record in Brighton and Bristol.
That's why Birmingham Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition supporters organised a people's budget meeting. This brought together trade unionists and community campaigners to discuss what services Birmingham needs, and how we can fight for the funding to get them.
Many Brummies in the meeting have stressed that we are in an emergency based on what they are experiencing and seeing the weather at work or in the streets. Because of the clear-cut issues caused by austerity, we would urge any councillors being elected who to confront austerity. This would start by tapping into the council's £157m reserve fund and borrowing money against the assets in order to stop the underfunding of essential services. We would then mobilise a mass campaign to demand that national government plug the gap with additional funding on a permanent basis.
At the people budget meeting, many individuals have highlighted where the money raised could be spent. It is important that Brummies have a say on what services money is spent on, after all is their tax money.
Many in the meeting voiced interest on how and where the public funds should be spent, a few notable issues faced by are the current dire housing situation, mental health epidemic and the employment crisis. Housing has been mentioned as a key challenge for many, as rent prices have soared high whilst wages have remained stagnant.
Comrades urged public housing to be built in many brownfield sites across Birmingham (45,000 homes worth by the council’s own estimates) in order to tackle the shortage of housing. Others mentioned how the city is hard for those who are disabled to move around, as many places are inaccessible. Only those who have able bodies can move around freely, whilst others struggle. Mental health has been a key issue voiced by one of the comrades from her personal experience, she struggled to get the proper treatment for many years, eventually getting the help needed. Lack of employment, training and support of workers across the many industries has plagued workers whether they have experience or have only recently left education.
All these issues voiced by comrades can be solved if the council were to be well-funded rather than being underfunded continuously.