STRIKING Birmingham binworkers are holding a London rally outside Parliament today where their Unite union general secretary Sharon Graham will deliver a speech calling for fairer council funding.
The rally is at 12.30pm at College Green opposite Parliament, Abingdon Street, SW1A 0AA.
Graham said yesterday: ‘Local councils are being run into the ground and workers and communities keep being asked to pay the price.
‘Local services keep getting worse – whether it is libraries closing or housing repairs delayed – while council workers keep being hit with real terms pay cuts.
‘Meanwhile, hundreds more local authorities are heading towards bankruptcy while paying inflated interest rates to the Treasury.
‘This has to change. Austerity was always a political choice and we can all see that it has failed.
‘This Labour government now needs to do the right thing, restructure the debt and fund local government fairly.’
Over 50 council workers, including Birmingham bin strikers, will be at the event, which is part of Unite’s new Fair Funding Now for Local Government campaign.
They will be sharing their stories of working in local government at a time when the sector is in crisis and calling for better funding for local authorities.
As part of the campaign, alongside Jon Trickett MP, Unite has tabled an early day motion (EDM) calling on the government to restructure local authority debt.
This would future-proof councils against the need to cut jobs, pay, conditions and critical public services.
Unite has also launched a website where supporters can write to their local MP and ask them to support the EDM.
The Fair Funding campaign comes as councils are in crisis after years of severe cuts to public services and jobs.
UK local authorities were £122bn in debt as of 2024, with government lenders charging excessive levels of interest to cash-strapped authorities.
Meanwhile the Local Government Association estimates that councils will still face a funding gap of up to £8bn by 2028-29 and 43 per cent of England’s 317 councils are at risk of bankruptcy.
As local councils have been ‘cut to the bone’, there has been a visible breakdown in public services.
Unite believes while cuts may save money in the short term, it leads to problems further down the line.
Unite national officer for local authorities Clare Keogh said: ‘The time to act on fair funding for local councils is now. Workers and communities across the UK are suffering.
‘This grave situation has to stop. The debt urgently needs to be cut or restructured otherwise more local authorities will go bankrupt, putting jobs and conditions on the line.
‘We urge the government to make the right choice by rejecting austerity and choosing to invest in well-funded jobs and public services.’
