May I ask if there is a relation to the worn out concrete problem? Is Birmingham responsible for funding school maintenance and therefore involved in the latest buildings problem? Would this limitation on expenditure prevent Birmingham from funding school repairs it would otherwise normally handle? That is, buildings safety would not fall under obligatory expenditure?
I can’t help comparing my home town, Birmingham, to Manchester, because I lived in the NW for a long time too. Manchester was the beneficiary of stable one party rule, with competent leaders and officers. Even the IRA accidentally did it a favour by blowing up the Arndale Centre, and kickstarting a renewal project.
Birmingham, conversely, was disinvested in by design over a long period, because it was growing too fast in the post-war period. But that’s another story. It also suffered from ever shifting politics in the Council House. Indeed, it was, I think, a Tory led council in 2012 when the Supreme Court decision on equal pay hit them.
The city is kind of a living metaphor for Britain. A Tory invention, initially dynamic (Gas and Water Socialism), but wrecked by the Conservatives being the dominant force over the city’s history.
May I ask if there is a relation to the worn out concrete problem? Is Birmingham responsible for funding school maintenance and therefore involved in the latest buildings problem? Would this limitation on expenditure prevent Birmingham from funding school repairs it would otherwise normally handle? That is, buildings safety would not fall under obligatory expenditure?
I can’t help comparing my home town, Birmingham, to Manchester, because I lived in the NW for a long time too. Manchester was the beneficiary of stable one party rule, with competent leaders and officers. Even the IRA accidentally did it a favour by blowing up the Arndale Centre, and kickstarting a renewal project.
Birmingham, conversely, was disinvested in by design over a long period, because it was growing too fast in the post-war period. But that’s another story. It also suffered from ever shifting politics in the Council House. Indeed, it was, I think, a Tory led council in 2012 when the Supreme Court decision on equal pay hit them.
The city is kind of a living metaphor for Britain. A Tory invention, initially dynamic (Gas and Water Socialism), but wrecked by the Conservatives being the dominant force over the city’s history.