Brum is too big to fail

摘要

Last week was a big week for Birmingham City Council - a council which has already seen its fair share of difficulties over past months. With the Kerslake review on governance and structure published on Tuesday, a budget consultation on Wednesday, and the city's children's commissioner appearing before overview and scrutiny on Thursday, it seems Britain's second city is still grappling with controversy. Birmingham has faced its fair share of problems over the past months, hitting the headlines over the Trojan Horse affair, children's services failures and its budget crisis. It seems the improvement plans are under way, but the negative headlines are still coming thick and fast. The Kerslake report is a damning indictment of where the authority currently stands - claiming it is failing to deliver even basic services. Branding the culture as silo-based, arrogant and overbearing, the report concludes the council's vision for the future of the city is incoherent and overly-complex and there is no real plan to fix the finances.