The city council of Birmingham, located in the country’s midlands, was slammed with a ginormous equal-pay claim worth up to £760 million ($955 million), following which it said the council had “insufficient resources” to make those payments.
As a result, the council was forced to make drastic cost cuts, resulting in the sacking of 600 staff, closure of community centers, reduction of household waste collections, and even turning down the brightness of its streetlights.
The measures reflected just how precarious the finances of Europe’s largest local authority were, as it turned to the government for additional support.
Now, it turns out, the situation may not have been as dire as anticipated.
A new…
