Andy Street calls for reform so Birmingham City Council's situation can never happen again.
While many local authorities have faced budget pressures, Andy Street said Birmingham City Council's position was uniqueThe West Midlands mayor has questioned whether council officers in Birmingham hid the scale of equal pay bills, or whether its leadership failed to act.The authority's leader, Councillor John Cotton, has insisted he hadBut Andy Street said either officers "didn't report" what was happening, or the leadership knew and "didn't act".
"The commissioners have to act really, really quickly to raise the case so we can begin the recovery of the finances of the city," Mr Street said."But... what has happened in Birmingham is unique."The Labour-run authority is facing the prospect of a bill of up to £760m to settle equal pay claims which is increasing by £5m to £14m each month.
Labour's Birmingham Erdington MP Paulette Hamilton, who was a city councillor until 2022 and had sat on its cabinet, said: "When I left the council there was no talk of this massive [equal pay] liability.She said "Tory austerity cuts" had played a bigger role in the finances when she ran the adult social care and health department.
Birmingham City Council faced its first bills over equal pay claims over a decade ago, in 2012, when 174 women who worked in traditionally female roles won a Supreme Court ruling against the local authority.
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