Birmingham City Council

Debate between Jim McMahon and Bradley Thomas

Monday 31st March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim McMahon]

There is a difference in tone between resolving the strike and breaking the strike. We absolutely stand ready to support the council and the workforce more generally, who do want the situation resolved as many who work for the council also work in the city. They take pride in being local public servants and they want the city to be proud of the council in return; for many, that is being tested. We absolutely stand ready to work with the council and find a way through this issue. The council is working hard to resolve it; it understands that people are angry and frustrated, and that, from a public health point of view, it just cannot continue.

[Bradley Thomas (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

Chelworth Road in my constituency is a road of two halves: on one half of the road, which is in the Wythall division of Worcestershire, the rubbish is collected; on the other side, which falls under Labour-led Birmingham city council, the rubbish is piling high, council tax is going up by 21% and a major incident is being declared. Labour is delivering rubbish, while the Liberal Democrats are prancing around on their hobby horses on social media. The Minister talks about priorities, including putting residents first and delivering value for money, but surely this is further proof that only Conservative councils will deliver on those priorities. Will the Minister tell us at what point he will step in to get those bins collected?

[Jim McMahon]

The hon. Gentleman is trying to set up the good council and the bad council by party politics, but I am afraid that has been exhausted. The previous Government did this all the time: they would parade councils of a different colour around for shaming, whatever the issue, while for one of their own they would just hope that everything would move on and that nobody would notice. We are not interested in doing that.

This is about a new partnership, where national Government and local government work together to resolve these issues. If a Conservative council finds itself in trouble—there have been some, I should say, and there may be more in the future—I am not going to name and shame it and parade it around in the way the hon. Gentleman is trying to do today. We stand ready to work with councils of all political parties in the interests of the people at a local level, because that is what matters.

Local Government Reorganisation

Debate between Jim McMahon and Bradley Thomas

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Jim McMahon]

No, that is certainly right. Our ambition is for acceleration, not for lagging behind, and we will make sure that no schemes are delayed as a result of reorganisation.

[Bradley Thomas (Bromsgrove) (Con)]

The Minister has quite rightly pointed out that residents across the country expect councillors to take a more strategic approach to deliver better services. My residents across Bromsgrove and its villages share that ambition. However, the biggest elephant in the room is the role of adult social care in the local government sector. Can the Minister outline to the House what decisions and what conversations are taking place across Government to address this so that future new councils, post reform, get off on the very best foot to improve their areas?

[Jim McMahon]

I feel that we have gone a long way to doing that, although we do accept that this is a bridging position to get us to the multi-year settlement. None the less, £3.7 billion of new money for adult social care in the settlement is a commitment laid out in pounds and pence in the way that local government has been asking for. We accept that there is a long way to go, and that councils need more support, but the Government are absolutely committed to rebuilding the foundations of local government and putting it on an even keel.