Roger Harmer Lib Dem Group Leader: Liberal Democrats for a Cleaner, Safer City, where Residents are Heard

Birmingham will become a cleaner, safer city, where anti-social behaviour is no longer tolerated, if the Liberal Democrats succeed in the city council elections on 7th May. The voice of residents will be properly listened to and their problems taken seriously, if we are given the opportunity to lead the council.

It is already clear that Labour will be hammered in the local elections, after taking the city into bankruptcy, failing to end the year-long bin strike and leaving the city without a functioning IT system for more than four years. This has led to huge rises in council tax - 24% over three years, the sale of hundreds of millions of pounds worth of assets and drastic cuts to services, while our city has become filthy and our roads full of potholes.

With the national collapse of votes for both the Labour and Conservative parties, the Liberal Democrats are aiming to be the strongest party in a new progressive partnership that puts the city first.

There is a lot to put right, the failures mentioned above were not one-offs, there are many more, such as the Athletes’ Village that’s never hosted an athlete and will cost the council hundreds of millions, and the lack of a functioning procurement and contract management systems. They are all symptoms of a dysfunctional political leadership, which led to a disastrously run administration.

Putting it right means recasting the priorities of the council to those of residents. Speak to them and it’s pretty clear what they are. 

First of all, we’ve got to clean up the city, which is in a shockingly dirty state. That obviously involves ending the bin strike but, beyond that, a radical reform of street cleansing and waste services. 

Secondly, it’s about tackling anti-social behaviour. There is sadly now a culture in our city of not following the rules, whether that’s speeding and dangerous driving, not bothering with planning applications, or fly-tipping and throwing litter out of the window of your car when you’ve finished your takeaway. 

We have to get back to a situation where the rules are followed, and people know that if they break them there will be consequences. As part of this, we need to regulate HMOs more firmly and stop their recent explosive growth across the city, damaging communities.

The third priority is having a council that actively listens to its residents, that consults properly and meaningfully. That means devolving decision making as far as possible down to communities, and actively engaging people, so they see it as their council, delivering services locally, not a body in the centre of Birmingham that does things to them.

Beyond these headlines we have a number of key pledges. We will get to work renewing our roads to tackle the pothole epidemic, protect our community libraries and ensure they are open when residents need them. We will also bring back free bulky waste collections to help clean up our city and freeze some key charges the council levies, notably burial fees, to help combat the cost-of-living crisis. 

The existing Liberal Democrat Group on the council has already achieved much from being in opposition. We have secured an extra £25m for road resurfacing in the coming year, together with funds to extend library opening hours and for extra waste enforcement and street cleansing. Our councillors, who’ve been working their backsides off in their local communities across our city - from Aston to Yardley - have a good understanding of what local communities need. We are confident we have the knowledge and experience to lead Birmingham to a brighter, more positive future. 

We have done it before, between 2004 and 2012 we led the city as part of the progressive partnership and during that time Birmingham won awards as the cleanest city in England, delivered high levels of council house decency and kept council tax rises low. 

We understand that many residents want to protest about recent failures, but by voting for the extremes of left or right, the risk is you just trade one set of poor administrators of the city for another. Look at what has happened in the councils won by Reform last May, such as our neighbours in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, where council tax has soared by 9% this year. The various Independents have a wide range of views and priorities. Given that, what are their chances of meeting the challenge of running the complex organisation that is Birmingham City Council.

So, our message is that from the centre ground of politics, we are offering sensible, well thought through policies that will bring positive change for our city. We are fighting the biggest campaign we have fought in Birmingham in a generation and are confident of dramatic success.