THE GMB union has demanded government intervention after Birmingham City Council announced the largest budget cut in local authority history today.

The council revealed plans to tackle a £300 million budget shortfall over the next two years and a sale of £1.25 billion of assets to repay a government bailout loan after the authority declared effective bankruptcy last September.

It confirmed plans to raise council tax by 21 per cent over two years and to cut up to 600 jobs. Street lights will be dimmed, waste collections become fortnightly, burial costs will rise.

The Audit Reform Lab think tank described the cuts as the largest in local authority history. They come as GMB members are balloting for strike action over their equal-pay claims of up to £760m and an £80m overspend on an under-fire IT system.

GMB organiser Racheal Fagan said: “City council bosses are at pains to stress they need to find budget savings to settle historic equal pay claims, yet not a single penny of the wages stolen from working women has been returned.

“We need to see urgent central government intervention on the equal-pay crisis but instead they’re trying to pass the cost on to ordinary Brummies.

“Without central government intervention, the disastrous budget inflicted on our city today could become a tragically familiar story across the country, with ordinary people paying the price for political failures.”

Labour council leader John Cotton said: “We are like every other council up and down the land dealing with the consequences of a massive crisis in local government funding.”

The budget proposals will be discussed and voted on at a full council meeting on March 5.

UNISON West Midlands regional secretary Ravi Subramanian said: “The people of Birmingham deserve better. They shouldn’t see their essential services reduced, nor lose community facilities.

“To rub salt in the wounds they’re being forced to pay more for less. Ministers have to step in and sort out this mess with proper financial help.

"The government needs to get a grip of the crisis in local government more broadly and provide councils with significant extra funding to stop more of them slipping into the abyss.”