Birmingham Tories to cut rates by 12 pc
By John Carvel, Local Government Correspondent
Birmingham City Council, which last May became the flagship of Tory municipal thrift, promised yesterday to cut its rates by 12 per cent this year and still finance substantial improvements in education, including 400 extra teachers.
Mr Neville Bosworth, its Conservative leader, said that the rate cut of 15p in the pound on Birmingham rateable value would be worth £500,000 to British Leyland, £127,000 to GKN, and £38 to a householder in a typical three-bedroomed post-war semi with garage.
He said: “I am not aware of any other major authority which has made such a reduction in the rate levy, certainly in recent years, but I do know this is the first rate reduction in Birmingham since the war.
“It surely proves that, with good Conservative housekeeping, economies can be made and spending reduced without the services being adversely affected.”
He warned, however, that the benefit of the rate cut could be wiped out by rate increases from the Labour-controlled West Midlands County Council, whose demands Birmingham must pass on to its ratepayers.
In rea[l]ity, however, the Birmingham rate cut owes as much to the city’s increased share of Government grants as to its economising. The proposed budget for 1983-4 is £362 million – exactly the same in cash terms (without allowing for inflation) as the original Labour budget for 1982-3.
Cutting the rates by 12 per cent will cost Birmingham council £24 million of which about £14 million will come from extra grants and £10 million from the council’s balances.
Mr Bosworth insisted, that the rate cut has been made possible by his administration’s economising. Savings since the Tories won power in May are worth £16 million a year.
From April, Birmingham will save over £3 million a year on its refuse collection after opening the service up to competitive tender (won by its own employees).
Tories to cut rates and take on more teachers
Mr Bosworth said that Birmingham would spend £4 million more on education in 1983-4, employing 400 more teachers at a time when the school population is falling by 6,000.
This recruitment, which runs counter to a national pattern of almost universal cuts, will improve pupil-teacher ratios from 23.3 to 21.6 in primary schools and from 17.1 to 16.1 in secondary schools.
Mixed aged teaching will be eliminated in most primary schools and children will be admitted at the beginning of the academic year in which they reach their fifth birthday rather than at the start of the term io [sic] which their birthday falls.
About £600,000 will also be added to social services budgets to meet growing demand from increased numbers of the elderly for services such as home helps.
Mr Bosworth said that his budget represents “an ideal balance of maximising economy and efficiency without adversely affecting, and in some cases improving, the fabric of the services.” Planned spending worth £362 million is £12 million below the Government’s spending target.
In real terms, after allowing for inflation, it is about £20 million less than the previous Labour programme.
Birmingham is also planning to double its spending on capital investment to £177 million. Mr Bosworth said he has received new legal advice this week which will allow the city to abolish rates for business premises which have been empty for more than three months.
The city has assumed 3½ per cent pay settlements for its workers. Every extra per cent would cost it £3 million. Every extra per cent on interest rates would cost at least £5 million.
Mr Clive Wilkinson, the Labour leader, said it was nonsense for the Tories to claim that their cuts were not damaging services.
The Conservatives were planning council rent increaes [sic] of £1.25 a week in October […]
(The Guardian, 13th January 1983)
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