Liberal Democrats call for more ‘relentless’ Sheffield Council budget following Birmingham bankruptcy

Councillors Mike Levery and Shaffaq Mohammed put forward a motion to full council next week titled ‘preventing another Birmingham’.

It follows Birmingham City Council declaring bankruptcy earlier this month.

In the motion they urge the council to commit to relentlessly delivering this year’s budget and saving plans and banning undeliverable budget implementation plans from the 2025/26 financial year.

They also want to see more clarity and detail on the implementation plans.

The party warned that if the council continued to dip into reserves to cover overspends, reserves would have been exhausted.

They said: “This outcome would have forced the council to draw on the £12.8 million of un-earmarked reserves, which would have been insufficient to balance the council’s budget for 2023/24, and the council would have been required to investigate further financial resources.”

Reserves have dwindled in recent years. The motion states of the £70 million set aside in 2021/22 to cover overspends and balance future budgets, £19.8 million was used for that year’s budget overspend and a further £15 million was used the year after.

There is now only around £30 million left to cover future overspends, the Liberal Democrats said.

The council decided not to use any reserves for this current financial year, instead relying on trying to make £47 million of savings and better than expected funding from government.

Councillors are expected to discuss and decide on the motion in a full council meeting on Wednesday, October 4.