Labour's Birmingham Pledges

• Fight for Birmingham's fair share
• No increase in council tax
• Deal with the city's financial mess
• Make Birmingham Britain's enterprise capital
• Fight against police cuts and damaging NHS changes
• Keep weekly refuse collections

Labour's Birmingham Manifesto

On Friday 23 March 2012 the Birmingham Labour Party published it's manifesto for the City Council elections.

One of the most ambitious manifestoes ever offered to the local electorate in Birmingham, Labour's Birmingham Manifesto will help change the relationship between the City Council and the communities that it serves.

The Birmingham Labour Party's programme will be directed to building Birmingham as Britain's enterprise capital, working for an inclusive Birmingham economy that enables every person to reach their full potential.

It is the belief of the Birmingham Labour Party that:

• education and children's services,
• policing and community safety,
• affordable decent housing, 
• adult care that provides peace of mind, 

all contribute to the prosperity of the city and to getting Birmingham's people a fair deal.

The Birmingham Manifesto has been based on the work of five policy commissions, each led by an experienced City Councillor and each supported by one of the City's eight Labour MPs. Every opportunity was taken to reach out to stakeholders and community groups outside of the Labour Party, hearing their voice, and shaping with them the Birmingham Labour Party's vision for the future.

To read the Birmingham Manifesto in full for yourself please click here.

Sir Albert Bore
Leader of the Labour Group in Birmingham

The Tory Lib Dem coalition running Birmingham City Council has failed the residents and businesses of our city - unemployment is rising, particularly amongst our young people; educational planning is inadequate; older people have no certainty on future care provision; and there has been little progress in meeting the demand for new homes.

Labour will put vision, energy and drive back into Birmingham. We will not allow the needs and aspirations of Birmingham’s residents and businesses to be brushed aside but, instead, we will capture and take forward a shared vision for the city that is firmly rooted in the diversity and talents of the city’s people.

We will not increase council tax in 2012. Our priority must be to deal with the financial ‘black hole’ created by the Tory Lib-Dem coalition in the City.

For two years running the coalition government has not given Birmingham our fair share of government funding. They have taken the equivalent of £164 from every person in Birmingham, compared to less than £20 per person in Wokingham.

A Labour Council will challenge all political parties, together with all the MPs that represent the city, to make a united bid to government for Birmingham to have its fair share of resources. One of our first acts will be to take our case to Downing Street.

Labour has today written to Higher Education Minister David Willetts calling for action as new research exposes how the Tory-led Government’s botched higher education reforms could deter some of the most disadvantaged students from going to university.

Following the announcement this week by the Higher Education Statistics Authority showing that in 2010-2011 total enrolments in higher education flatlined, independent research by the House of Commons library shows that government policies are putting participation rates in higher education at risk.

The research shows bursaries to students are being cut by £15 million, while £23 million through ‘fee waivers’ is being taken out of the system by the Government. This is to try to fill a black-hole in the Government’s botched funding calculations.

Shabana Mahmood MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for Higher Education, said:

"This is further evidence of how the Tory-led Government’s misguided and unfair tuition fee policy is hitting the hopes of the next generation.

“Parents and students will be concerned at the news that recent changes, which push a number of universities to offer fee waivers and cut bursaries, could put at risk widening participation from students from different backgrounds. So I have written to David Willetts for answers and action.

“David Cameron's unfair, unnecessary and unsustainable decision to treble tuition fees to £9,000 is a direct attack on the aspirations of people up and down the country. This out of touch Government should change course, listen to Labour and adopt our proposals which would see tuition fees cut to £6,000 - paid for by reversing the corporation tax cut on the banks.”

Labour says:  “Thank You”.

We would like to thank everyone in the city who voted on Thursday 5 May and especially those who voted for Labour.  We gained 14 seats: in Harborne, Quinton, Hall Green, Moseley and Kings Heath, Sparkbrook, Springfield, Hodge Hill, Kings Norton, Longbridge, Billesley, Brandwood, Selly Oak, Acocks Green and South Yardley.  This increases the number of Labour Councillors in the city to 55:  just 6 short of the 61 needed to take control of the City Council.  There were 7 gains from the LibDems, 1 from Respect and 6 from the Tories.

Clearly voters decided to punish the Lib Dems, in the same way that we have been punished in the past when we have done things in government that voters disagree with.  Nobody should ever underestimate the power of the individual vote and the ballot box to bring about positive change.  In talking to voters over recent weeks it became very clear that many were switching away from the LibDems and the Tories, but the strength of feeling shown on polling day came as a surprise to all of us.  There were nearly as many Labour gains from the Conservatives as the Liberals and wards such as Weoley, Edgbaston, Bournville and Sutton Vesey were close to going Labour.  So whilst the national focus may be on damage to the Lib Dems, locally both governing parties took major losses.  In Sparkbrook voters decided they needed the protection of a "bigger umbrella" and many switched from Respect to Labour to get that protection for their families.

If you voted Labour, and are concerned about the future of our city and our country, then do think about joining us.  You can get further information or sign up at www.labour.org.uk.

We hope to gain more seats at the election in May 2012 and to become the majority party in the city.  Over the next 12 months we need to think very carefully about what we will then do and involve as many people, community organisations, trade unions and business groups as possible in shaping a positive agenda to deal with year two of the consequenses of very substantial cuts to government grants from general taxation;  and in trying to change the current direction of government policy.

Over the past 12 months the Conservative-led government in Westminster has inflicted record levels of cuts on our city that have hammered the people of Birmingham much harder than the South.  From cutting 400 police officers from our streets to slashing social care and attempting to axe our Citizens Advice Bureaux, Birmingham is bearing the brunt of the cuts.

Areas like leafy Surrey face a cut of only 0.3% and Dorset is even looking at a an increase of 0.3% but when the Conservative Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles inflicted 8.3% cuts on Birmingham - double the national average - he said he was delighted.

Labour is standing up and fighting for the people of Birmingham.  Labour is this city's voice in tough times.

This Conservative LibDem Council has failed to stick up for our city.  Why have the Tories and the LibDems got it in for Birmingham?

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