Accounting specialists name for public inquiry into Birmingham chapter

Thirty-five accounting, finance and native authorities specialists have signed an open letter to native authorities minister Steve Reed, calling for a public inquiry into the chapter of Birmingham Metropolis Council.

The open letter, which seems to be on the newest accounts from the council, notes that a few of the figures used to “bankrupt” Birmingham Metropolis Council, together with forecast ranges of reserves and alleged equal pay liabilities, appear to be they’ve been materially misstated. 

For the reason that failed implementation of an Oracle enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) system to switch SAP in April 2022, the council has confronted important points with the processes and interfaces, in addition to the system’s capability to provide stories. In impact, the council was unable to seek out out what cash was being spent, what it was owed and the way a lot it had obtained. Funds forecasting needed to be carried out based mostly on the most effective obtainable knowledge and organisational intelligence. 

In April 2023, council chief John Cotton mentioned the disastrous implementation of the ERP system, and in September 2023, the council issued a Part 114 chapter discover.

Birmingham Metropolis Council’s Part 114 chapter discover led to an increase within the council’s borrowing prices, an 18% rise in Council Tax payments, together with the continued bin strike dispute with Unite the Union. Considerably, the council has needed to minimize its price range and promote belongings to assist it cut back prices. The letter additionally states that there was a steep rise in exterior audit charges and the numerous prices charged by town’s commissioners, who had been appointed with out the standard greatest worth evaluation.

In a publish on X, James Brackley a lecturer in accounting at College of Glasgow, who ready an evaluation of the accounting at Birmingham Metropolis Council, wrote: “The newest evaluation proves past doubt that Birmingham was by no means ‘bankrupt’ with the chapter & subsequent intervention being based mostly on imagined knowledge because the authority underestimated its reserves and exaggerated its (non-existent) deficits by a whole lot of thousands and thousands of kilos. This has since led to the largest program of cuts and asset gross sales any authority has ever confronted.”

He added that the asset gross sales in 2024/25 in opposition to an underlying balanced place really led to very large surpluses throughout all core reserves within the newest accounts.

Commenting on the publish, Sharon Graham, normal secretary of Unite, tweeted: “Authorities Commissioners, being paid £1200 a day, will not be wanted. Unite repeatedly suggested the council that their figures had been merely unsuitable, as was their authorized recommendation. This can be a disgraceful story. But once more, employees and residents are paying the worth for a disaster and incompetence not of their making.”

Following the publication of a Grant Thornton report in February 2025, which checked out what went unsuitable with the implementation of the Oracle system, the council revised the implementation of Oracle to April 2026.

Nonetheless, as of September 2025, it’s believed that the revenue administration system (IMS) at Birmingham Metropolis Council – a key software that should work with the Oracle system – is just not totally working. Beforehand, the dearth of a totally functioning IMS meant workarounds had been wanted for monetary reporting.