A great article discussing one of the underlying reasons. It is interesting that the sky news article doesn't mention the fleecing by Oracle at all!

https://news.sky.com/story/birmingham-city-council-effectively-declares-bankruptcy-after-being-hit-by-760m-bill-12955400

Compared to the £760m legal settlement for equal pay, the £80m cost overrun with Oracle looks like a drop in a bucket.

You can say that 10% is much lower, but it's definitely not the same scale as a drop in a bucket.

We had the money to host the Commonwealth games too, and the Wealdstone Raider was on about Birmingham hosting it again because Alberta said they couldn't afford it.

A lot of money has been spaffed up the wall. The council is far too big really and must be cut down in to smaller areas (like Manchester and London are). But it's good to know the reason the council haven't been out to fix my mom's fence that was broken by a council tenant 12 months ago is because they just don't have the cash to do it.

"The council is far too big really and must be cut down in to smaller areas"

The trouble with that, is that it is less efficient staffing wise. Hence why unitary authorities were created, so as to cut down on mismanagement of HR.

What is actually needed are leaders and managers who are well versed in corporate management and who can make rational and common sense decisions BEFORE spaffing the money up the wall on over-priced and mostly unachievable projects...either due to certain peoples need for recognition in the history books or simply because said councillors are too dumb to realise they are in over their heads and just enjoy being in the limelight when they actually get around to making a decision !!

But local councillors aren't elected through competency, but through political beauty contests.

What is it with governments, national or local? How do they bollox it so often? This looked like the win was easy for Oracle but the challenge is to come up with the goods.

"What is it with governments, national or local? How do they bollox it so often?"

Simpy because most politicians and councillors are "normal people" (before they were elected to office) and most likely were embued with few actual management or decision making skills, as they were elected based on their political leanings and not their actual capabilities.

The resulting chaos is due to their leaders also being clueless and hence they buy in "consultants and advisors" who generally are not accountable to the electorate.

This can go one of two ways and mostly it's not the right way.

That's a nice preview of what the whole country can look forward to after Labour wins the next general election. We are so screwed.

Ah but that's such an unfashionable view, the commentards on this site generally seem to prefer Lib Dem and crap all over the Tories despite Lib Dems not having any real experience running a modern government, nor any sensible policies since they can promise what they like from the sidelines never having to deliver it. It matters not that Labour generally break the bank and make seriously bad economic decisions and revert to the socialist type of giving everything away. What goes on at Westminster is a world away from local authorities and their work to survive and keep going despite what some Muppets who are a disgrace to their respective parties down in the bubble are up to. There's Conservative values and Socialist values that we constantly bounce between in this country regardless of how the centre ground is fought, and we are much the worse for flip flopping from one to the other everytime the floating voters get bored.

Both seem unaware that Northamptonshire (Con), Thurrock (Con), Woking (Con), Croydon (Con) have gone under. Also Kent (Con) and Hamptonshire (Con) are about to go under.

Also both seem unaware as to how councils are funded.

Anyway, you may now return to praising the Tory's exemplary experience in running a modern government. Hope you don't mind lumps of concrete falling on your offspring's head.

"Hope you don't mind lumps of concrete falling on your offspring's head."

Or on your relative, who is in hospital - a hospital near my workplace is thought to have about 60% of it's buildings made from RAAC, and yet it is still open...but the entire place will need to be bulldosed and replaced piece by piece, which will take years...and there's nowhere nearby to site temporary buildings.

Also:

Maybe your apartment building going up in flames...

Or your local beach being covered in sewage...

Or your roads being criss-crossed with pot-holes...

oh and how about being charged to drive your vehicle into your local town, though why you would want to do that god only knows as many shops have or are closed down and some have moved to out of town retail parks...thereby depriving the local council of more business rates and causing funding gaps.

"There's Conservative values and Socialist values that we constantly bounce between in this country regardless of how the centre ground is fought, and we are much the worse for flip flopping from one to the other everytime the floating voters get bored."

The same happens in the USA, between Republicans and Democrats...

At least with dictatorships, there's usually only ONE person to blame, whereas in a typical two party system, the flip-flopping means the incumbent party almost always blames the previous incumbents.

It's shame you chose to reiterate Tory propaganda instead of the facts. Fact is, every Tory government has broken the bank on every occasion they have been in office and Labour have always balanced the books. Yes, they presided over a disastrous period a lifetime ago as they tried to stimulate the economy and keep many old industries ticking along, but that is well and truly last century, and outweighed by the numerous shambolic Tory deficits that have happened since.

@tony72

To be fair I dont see much hope from any of the current parties. But yes we are so screwed

True. A large part of the problem circles around to the fact that governments (of pretty much any stripe) have spent years cutting revenue (i.e. taxes) and raising them to something sane is unpopular with The Man On The Street.

Of course for The Man On The Street raising the 45% rate (or even part of the 40% rate) isn't going to make much difference, but it will bring in a little more cash, which will make rebuilding schools/hospitals/the NHS/NATS/etc easier (if not easy). Still, I'm sure the 25% corporation tax rate couldn't possibly be adjusted without the country collapsing in dire despair!

Bizarrely, the corporation tax rate seems to have been over 40% in the 1980s (proprietor: M. Thatcher), which is obviously a misprint in the history books or something!

Taxes are now the highest since most people remember.

The problem is that government is spending money on private agencies charging tax payer premium rather than expanding in house developments.

Simple example - NHS can't pay nurse a market rate, but they can pay market rate to agency to supply a nurse.

Agencies are milking the tax payer dry and only answer is to raise taxes further.

Removing the cancer of IR35 loophole could put a stop to this.

Agencies are milking the tax payer dry and only answer is to raise taxes further.

Well, there is another answer - stop using agencies if they were set up to fleece the taxpayer.

Ooh, you can't raise taxes to improve public services, that makes you unelectable. It has to be from thin air - at least that's what both major parties seem to believe right now.

Yes, because the current Government has been doing a stellar job, clearly?

I wonder if there's something significant in "largest local authority in Europe". We've had an ongoing process of merging local councils into bigger and bigger entities, obstensively driven as cost saving, but does this just result in creating huge and unweildy behemoths that collapse under their own weight? North Yorkshire was unitaryised last year, pushed through as cost saving, but it's already £100 million in the red.

Why did they need to switch to Oracle?

"one insider told The Register that Oracle Fusion, the cloud-based ERP system the council is moving to, "is not a product that is suitable for local authorities, because it's very much geared towards a manufacturing/trading organization.""

Well, colour me surprised!! Who could ever have thought that!! Oracle and SAP are both monolithic unflexible beasts, in theory cistomisable, in practice customisation requires half a decade of blood, sweat, tears, and complex ritual dances at full moon that require hundreds of (highly paid) consultants to get just right

> The council has made a request to the Local Government Association for additional strategic support

Try this strategy: Stop giving Oracle money.

> In 2021, Oracle founder and CTO Larry Ellison said Birmingham City Council was one of a number of successful wins

Just look at how much he won.