Birmingham is quickly transforming into a third world city
Yesterday's scenes from Birmingham, where a mobile bin collection was called off after it was swarmed by residents desperate to dispose of their rubbish, have reinforced the image of it fast becoming a failed city.
Some will say that none of this is new to Britain – that sight of bin bags piling up on rat-infested streets was commonplace in cities like Birmingham during the so-called 'winter of discontent' in the late 1970s. It is a fair point to make – industrial action by binmen is bound to have this kind of impact, especially in densely-populated areas of inner-city England.
But this overlooks the spectacular mismanagement of Britain's second-largest city in recent times, which is largely down to the culturally dysfunctional nature of its key public institutions – most of all, Birmingham City Council, which has developed a reputation for being one of the most incompetent local authorities in the land.
Back in September 2023, Labour-controlled Birmingham City Council issued a Section 114 notice, effectively declaring itself bankrupt. The factors behind this declaration included a huge equal pay liability and disastrous IT system upgrade – leading to significant cuts to services and considerable council tax increases. The residents of Birmingham are paying more for less benefits, being expected to foot the bill for their own council's rank ineptitude.
A damning report published a couple of months ago by auditors Grant Thornton highlighted an organisational culture at Birmingham City Council of 'not reporting or being receptive to bad news, an over-emphasis on protecting personal reputations and a lack of challenge and rigour in governance'.
As well as raising the 'serious mismanagement in the waste and street-scene services' (which preceded the refuse workers' strikes), auditors also flagged serious failings in services for families and children with special educational needs and disabilities. Perhaps it is no surprise that the Social Mobility Commission's recent 'State of the Nation' report placed Birmingham in the 'unfavourable' category for conditions of childhood. Officials and staff at the council have also faced allegations of criminal corruption, excessive hospitality, and failing to declare interests in connection to multi-million-pound housing repairs contracts.
Birmingham does not only suffer from woeful governance at the hands of the local council – in the shape of West Midlands Police, the city falls under a territorial force which is completely out of its depth when it comes to so-called 'community relations'. Back in 2015, it was revealed that senior officers at West Midlands Police suppressed a report on Birmingham's grooming gangs, for fear that it would inflame racial tensions ahead of the 2010 general election. A total of seventy-five suspects were identified, most having a history of sexual violence and predominantly being of Pakistani heritage.
West Midlands Police's diabolical approach to 'diversity management' was exposed yet again during last summer's violent disorder. Superintendent Emlyn Richards revealed that his force consulted Muslim 'community and business leaders' after rumours that a far-right English Defence League march was planned for the Muslim-concentrated Birmingham areas of Alum Rock and Bordesley Green. This colonial-style 'British Raj' approach to keeping the peace by outsourcing law-and-order responsibilities to unaccountable 'community figures' clearly didn't pay off, with The Clumsy Swan pub being stormed by a violent mob who wrongly believed that EDL members were at the establishment.
There was a time when Birmingham was considered one of the world's greatest cities. Playing a critical role in the Industrial Revolution, Birmingham was described in the summer of 1890 by Harper's Magazine as the 'best-governed city in the world'. It evolved from being a small seventh-century Anglo-Saxon hamlet to a shining beacon of gold-standard governance and groundbreaking commercial innovation.
Atrocious forms of modern-day governance – at both the national and local level – have contributed towards the 'thirdworldification' of Birmingham. It is now a city defined by its malfunctioning public institutions, dire social infrastructure, unstable community relations, and loss of civic industrial pride.
Birmingham's tragic decline is surely one of the most depressing tales of post-WWII Britain.
Dr Rakib Ehsan is the author of Beyond Grievance
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