Birmingham City Council gets a month to find £300m savings

A report from the council’s own finance director, external Fiona Greenway says a new savings programme will have to be built from a standing start, because efforts so far had “historically underdelivered”.

The savings target had previously been put at £200m.

“Every effort must be made to commence delivery of savings as soon as possible,” she continued.

The Labour leader of the council, John Cotton, had previously said there would be “no fire sale” of assets, but that “everything was on the table” as it fought to bring the overspend under control .

However, Moseley councillor Kerry Jenkins said in a post on X, external (formerly Twitter) she was “firmly rooted in the reality of the sheer awfulness of what is to come”.