Savings targets and overspends by Birmingham constituencies: data breakdown

Some Birmingham constituencies are facing a much bigger budget cut than others, according to new data from the Housing and Constituencies Directorate.

The constituency of Hall Green, which includes Moseley and King's Heath, Sparkbrook and Springfield is in the process of finding savings in the current fiscal year of £1,814,000.

By comparison, only £485,000 is savings is expected to be shaved from the constituency budget in Edgbaston which encompasses Edgbaston, Bartley Green, Harborne and Quinton.

This bar graph illustrates the disparity in savings targets.

The raw data for the graph can be found here.

Section 188

The savings targets are laid out in a Section 188 redundancy notice which pertains to the Constituency portfolio of Birmingham Council's Housing and Constituencies Directorate. The document does not express the savings targets as a percentage of overall budget.

Not surprisingly, the Section 188 indicates that redundancies may be greater in constituencies that need to find bigger savings.

As we reported Monday, the likelihood of losing your Constituency job appears to depend on where work, with Hall Green facing the most potential redundancies in this portfolio (94) compared to zero redundancies in Sutton Coldfield.

Birmingham City Council was contacted for an explanation of why savings targets are unequal across constituencies but a spokesperson declined the opportunity to comment at this time.

Overpsends

A partial explanation for the disparity in savings targets might be found in how much each constituency has overspent its budget in the past.

The graph below illustrates that all constituencies overspent their budgets in the previous financial year, but some overspent far more than others.

For example, Erdington carried forward an overspend of £1,102,000 from the previous year while Hall Green carried forward £633,000.

By comparison, the overspend in Selly Oak was only £11,000 and in both Hodge Hill and Sutton Coldfield it was £19,000.

The raw data for the graph can be found here. (Data was not available for Northfield)

In all cases, plans have been made for constituencies to repay the overspend over the course of the next three years. The overspend has been added to the targeted savings for this financial year.