In Birmingham, they say the rats are as big as cats.
Nine weeks into the bin strike that has bedevilled the city, the unions this week announced it would be indefinite without a settlement.
“It’s horrendous,” says Tim Huxtable, a Tory Birmingham City Council councillor. “Local residents feel it’s really affecting their mental health, not knowing when their waste and recycling will be collected.
“It really is all-encompassing. And it’s really getting everyone down.”
Then he adds: “The only thing flourishing in Birmingham at the moment is our rats have become the size of cats.”
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The roots of the strike are complex and multi-layered – Birmingham Council was declared bankrupt and ran out of money after equal pay judgements, but some blame the bin collection firms for contributing to the problem.
However, fixing the problem and ending the strikes means one clear solution: more cash.
Yet councils over the coming years are facing ever-tighter settlements. Although there was extra cash this year, rising costs are going to put councils under pressure in coming years.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies said recently: “Overall then, 2025 will continue the trend of substantial above-inflation increases in funding for English councils.
“Unfortunately, their costs have also been outpacing inflation, and with a tighter outlook for funding from central government looming from 2026 onwards, tackling the demand and cost drivers impacting councils’ budgets is becoming increasingly urgent.”
Could that change?
Next Wednesday Rachel Reeves will decide the overall budgets for public expenditure in the spring statement for the next three years – already very tight.
But the tightest of self-imposed borrowing limits, promises not to raise most taxes and worsening global…
