![\"Birmingham](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1_Birmingham-Council.jpg\")
(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)<\/p>\nThe final equal pay settlement facing Birmingham City Council is much less than the figure that triggered effective bankruptcy(Image: Local Democracy Reporting Service)<\/p>\n
Angry councillors and academics today slammed Birmingham City Council<\/a> for ‘going bust when it didn’t have to’ because its officers feared it faced a \u00a3760 million equal pay claim.<\/p>\n The oft-cited figure, used in legal notices declaring the city council’s <\/a>de facto bankruptcy, was ‘false, just a figment of someone’s imagination’ and has never been shown to be valid, said furious city councillor Paul Tilsley.<\/p>\n “It was the rock that triggered an avalanche of misery that has destroyed Birmingham’s reputation, caused real pain and hardship and destabilised the entire city,” he said.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Revealed – Birmingham City Council pays out ‘around \u00a3250 million’ in thousands of equal pay claims<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Coun Tilsley, (Lib Dem, Sheldon) spoke out after insider sources revealed to BirminghamLive that the final equal pay settlement hammered out between the council and unions Unison and GMB was around \u00a3250 million.<\/a> The settlement deal, but not its details, was announced this week, Tuesday October 14.<\/p>\n Even if the final figure ends up being closer to \u00a3300 million, it would still dwarf the ‘guestimate’ that drove the council into de facto bankruptcy, said Coun Tilsley, a veteran member of the council’s audit committee.<\/p>\n It was ‘vindication’ for those who long railed against the original figure, often while facing considerable political pressure to stay quiet, he said.<\/p>\n Coun Tilsley said: “It was clear to anyone who had any sense that the figure quoted had no credibility. Yet it was used to justify the council going bust and saying it had no money.”<\/p>\n The figure of ‘\u00a3650 to \u00a3760 million’ was put into the public domain in June 2023 by then-council chief executive Deborah Cadman, supported by council leader Coun John Cotton. It was calculated by officers after the council was warned of imminent equal pay claims over the proliferation of ‘task and finish’ practices and ‘role enhancements’ in the mainly male-staffed bin service.<\/p>\n In the aftermath BirminghamLive repeatedly sought clarity on how the figure was reached – including via Freedom of Information requests and challenges to the council – but these were always snubbed on the basis that revealing the formula behind the figure could open up more claims.<\/p>\n But at the time councillors, unions and academics all declared the figure did not add up.<\/p>\n Among the sceptics was James Brackley, an audit specialist and academic. He was a senior figure in the Audit Reform Lab, based at Sheffield University, who published a report last year claiming the reported equal pay bill was ‘overstated’ and ‘prematurely released’.<\/p>\n The report found it was the council’s defective new digital software operating system, known as Oracle, that was at the heart of the chaos, on top of austerity cuts and Tory policies driving up demand for costly crisis services.<\/p>\n Brackley has since cited new evidence that showed the council need not have declared its bankruptcy when it did, even allowing for the Oracle chaos.<\/p>\n He has since backed BirminghamLive and opposition councillor calls for a full public inquiry to uncover what really went on.<\/p>\n READ MORE:<\/strong> Blameless Brummies are paying price for council fiasco – the 13 questions that must be answered<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n He said he believed the council declared its bankruptcy based on a dire misunderstanding of the equal pay liability, a failure to properly account for its reserves and ‘a sense of panic’.<\/p>\n He said today: “Birmingham<\/a> should never have gone bankrupt. It didn’t need to.”<\/p>\n![\"Councillor](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1_PaulTilsley2.jpg\")
Councillor Paul Tilsley<\/p>\n