city council<\/a> declared a major incident earlier this month, a number of measures have been taken to clear the huge backlog of waste blighting the city, including the extension of opening hours at the city\u2019s tips.<\/p>\nAnother move likely to be welcomed by residents is that the Labour-run council\u2019s pest control charge for rats has recently been made temporarily free.<\/p>\n
In response, Birmingham Local Conservatives welcomed the authority\u2019s \u201cbelated decision\u201d but went on to describe it as a \u201cpartial victory\u201d.<\/p>\n
Councillor Robert Alden, leader of the Conservative Group, argued: \u201cThe charge should never have been imposed and we call on the council to now go further and adopt our costed plan to scrap it permanently.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour\u2019s rat tax hurts the least well off in the city the most and should be scrapped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile Coun Adam Higgs described it as a \u201cshortsighted and unfair policy\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis temporary suspension is proof our campaign was justified but we won\u2019t stop until this charge is gone for good,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Why was the \u2018rat tax\u2019 introduced?<\/p>\n
Sajeela Naseer, director of regulation and enforcement at the council, told a council meeting earlier this year that the charge was brought in because the delivery of the free service was costing the authority around \u00a3400,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously we\u2019re in a specific financial situation at the moment,\u201d she said. \u201cWe followed a lead that has been shown by other local authorities across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
She went on to say that the council had been consulting on a new operating structure within pest control.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas last year the pest control service was costing the council \u00a3400,000, it will now be of no cost to the council,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe accept there are citizens who will no longer have that free service but we have done our best to mitigate against the impacts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Treatments for rats in the house and garden previously remained free for council tenants.<\/p>\n
As the \u2018rat tax\u2019 row continues, a full council meeting earlier this month saw a Birmingham councillor confirm she had quit the Labour Party over the council\u2019s pest control charge for rats.<\/p>\n
Sam Forsyth, who represents Quinton, told the council chamber: \u201cMy opposition to the introduction of that charge is well-known.<\/p>\n
\u201cI oppose that charge and as of ten minutes ago, I am no longer a member of the Labour Party.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bins strike was triggered by a dispute between the council and Unite, with the union saying plans to scrap a Waste Recycling and Collection Officer (WRCO) role would force \u201cdedicated workers onto pay levels barely above the minimum wage\u201d.<\/p>\n
However, the council\u2019s political leadership has insisted that a \u201cfair and reasonable offer\u201d has been made and that \u201cnot a single worker needs to lose a penny\u201d.<\/p>\n
Ahead of talks resuming today, April 23, council leader John Cotton warned the \u201cWRCO role cannot be brought back\u201d and that the authority \u201ccannot and will not entertain anything that would re-open an equal pay liability.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the wider financial turmoil affecting the council, external auditors have highlighted several issues including the equal pay debacle, inadequate budget setting, poor service management, demand led pressures and the disastrous implementation of a new IT system.<\/p>\n
Labour politicians have also pointed to the impact of funding cuts over the past decade or so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The crisis-hit authority\u2019s unprecedented budget last year included plans to introduce new pest control charges for \u2018rat in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,728,4884,8823,379,12,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-45802","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-environment","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-ldrs","14":"tag-local-hubs","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114391324071985931","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Birmingham](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/10af8275-62f7-44e5-be9c-f089026249dc.jpeg\")
Birmingham City Council leader John Cotton during the 2025 budget meeting. Credit: Alexander Brock. Permission for use for all LDRS partners.<\/p>\n