Birmingham Council has defended an “ambitious” plan for the city’s future despite the vision being slammed as “devoid of reality”.

The local authority’s corporate plan sets out the priorities for Birmingham over the next three years and how it intends to overcome the issues which have recently plagued the council.

In a bid to make the city fairer, greener and healthier, the Labour-run council’s plan explores how it can tackle critical challenges such as housing need, health inequalities, unemployment and child poverty.

But the council’s vision came under fire during a cabinet meeting yesterday, June 3, with Conservative group leader Robert Alden pointing to its aspiration of improving street cleaning and waste services.

He went on to say the city’s bins service was currently not operating properly as the ongoing bins strike continues to take its toll.

“This plan is devoid of the reality of the situation the council finds itself in,” he argued. “That’s a fundamental problem as to why it will fail.

“Residents expect the city to balance the books and to clean the streets – this corporate plan doesn’t do it.

Coun Alden added: “A lot of officer time and resources have been spent producing yet more colourful, lovely dossiers to hand out and claim that the future will be different.”

Acknowledging the financial turmoil which has plagued the authority, council leader John Cotton said the Labour administration had made significant progress in “fixing the foundations”.

He continued: “Fixing those foundations is essential if we’re going to deliver on ambitions for this city – and we should make no apology for being ambitious for Birmingham and its people.

“This is exactly what this corporate plan is about – it’s about looking forward to the future.”

Coun Cotton went on to say the plan sets out the council’s “high level ambitions” and “major targets” for the city over the next few years.

“It’s also underpinned by a lot of detailed policy and strategy that’s come before this cabinet previously,” he said.

“It’s important not to just look at one document – we need to look at this being the guiding document that governs all the other work that this council is undertaking.”

Deputy leader Coun Sharon Thompson added: “We have to be ambitious for the residents of Birmingham – that is we are committed to doing whilst also fixing some of the issues which opposition [councillors] have highlighted.

“The world is changing, innovation is coming upon us and we cannot let Birmingham be left behind.”

She added that having a Labour government working with the council would “make a difference” when it came to tackling some of the city’s most pressing issues compared to the previous 13 years.

Birmingham City Council also has plans to transform its waste collection service in a bid to boost the efficiency and reliability of bin collections.

But the bins strike dispute between itself and Unite the union remains unresolved, with striking workers raising concerns about pay while the council’s leadership has repeatedly insisted that a “fair and reasonable” offer has been made.

The all-out citywide strike has been running since March and has attracted unwanted headlines from across the world, with tales of ‘cat-sized rats’ and rubbish mountains making headlines.

On the council’s financial woes which led to unprecedented cuts to local services, the corporate plan acknowledged that it faced “significant challenges” that led to government intervention in 2023.

Concerns were raised over equal pay liabilities, the failed Oracle implementation and “budget and financial management instability”.

“The council responded with its first Improvement and Recovery Plan (IRP), which provided an outline roadmap for stabilisation and change,” it continued.

“Although there is still a long way to go, delivery of IRP programmes over the last year has moved the council forward in its improvement and recovery journey.”

The corporate plan went on to say that managing director Joanne Roney CBE, the council’s leadership, officers and commissioners have been working closely together to improve the functioning of the organisation.

“Since April 2024, BCC has made substantial progress in addressing its most critical issues,” it went on to say. “The Brindley Programme has stabilised the re-implementation of the Oracle ERP system and is on track to go live in April 2026.

“A framework settlement agreement has been reached on equal pay and a balanced budget was set for 24/25 and 25/26 with c.£150m of savings delivered in 24/25.”

“The council is beginning to move beyond a shorter-term focus on stabilisation and crisis management towards longer-term and sustainable improvement and transformation,” it added.

The plan, therefore, said that Birmingham City Council is now at a “critical turning point”.

“Many of the immediate challenges have been addressed and successes should be celebrated,” it said. “However, the work is not yet complete.

“This plan sets out a clear pathway for delivering lasting improvement and transformation.”