Birmingham City Council was so caught out by the Government’s council tax settlement that it’s now had to postpone the annual budget setting meeting

Cash-strapped Birmingham City Council has had to postpone its crucial Budget meeting by a week, triggering an angry response.

The delay to the legally-binding meeting to agree the Budget for this coming year, due to take place next Tuesday, was decried as ‘flabbergasting’ and a sign of the council leadership being ‘unfit to lead’.

Instead the full Budget meeting will take place a week later, on Tuesday, March 2. Because that will fall in Ramadan, the council is to start the meeting in the morning so it can end in time for Muslim councillors to break their fast at sunset.

READ MORE: Revealed – Birmingham City Council scramble to plug £12.5 million ‘black hole’ after tax shock

The postponement drew an angry response from opposition members. They sajd it was proof the council was caught out by a belated Government decision to only allow the council to put up council tax by 7.49 per cent and not, as it wanted, by 9.99 per cent.

That left a black hole of £11 million which could only be filled by asking the Government to let it draw funds as Exceptional Financial Support. Labour leaders described that as a done deal, and declared they had produced a balanced budget as a result.

But it has now emerged a legal budget cannot be set until the Government allows the EFS request – and Parliament is currently in recess so won’t be looking into the bid until its return from February 24.

In a message to members today, Monday, February 17, the council said the original timeline ‘was no longer possible’. It said: “We have written to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) in relation to Exceptional Financial Support to enable a balanced budget to be agreed . MHCLG advised late last week the outcome of this request may not be confirmed by February 25, due to Parliamentary Recess…”

It has now ruled the Budget meeting will take place on Tuesday 4 March. It said: “Because the meeting will now take place during Ramadan, it will start early to ensure it will finish by sunset. The early start will allow the meeting to run its normal length. More details will follow.”

It said the meeting would still be held in time to meet the statutory deadlines for council tax setting of March 11.

Conservative group leader Coun Robert Alden said it was a ‘flabbergasting’ state of affairs. He said it proved that, as BirminghamLive had first exposed, the council leadership was caught out by the Government’s announcement that it was only permitting a 7.5 per cent tax rise, despite an attempt by the Labour leader to paint it as a mutual decision.

Coun Alden (Con, Erdington), said it ‘beggars belief’ the political leaders didn’t realise their budget would not balance without Government intervention.

“They had to delay last year’s meeting for this very reason, so to have made the same mistake again 12 months later is flabbergasting, and shows how unfit for governing the Labour administration in Birmingham is,” he claimed.

Coun Ewan Mackey (Con, Sutton Roughley), deputy leader of the opposition, said the Labour cabinet was now having to publicly admit it did not yet have a balanced budget to present to the city.

“The only thing bigger than their budget gap, is their credibility gap. Birmingham needs a change,” he added, referring to the May 2026 all-out elections for the council’s 101 seats.