Birmingham City Council budget: huge wave of price rises for services - what you'll be paying more for

For the second year in a row, the cash-strapped authority is looking to hike council tax and make cuts to local services which could impact residents across the city.

The council’s financial woes also mean rubbish disposal, leisure and sport, bereavement services, parking, adult social care, pest control and more could be affected by rises in charges.

This means higher costs of keeping fit, dying and getting rid of bulky waste for the Brummies affected.

These ‘revised’ charges would come into effect from April 1 this year if the council’s budget is passed through later this month.

One proposal which has already caused controversy is the one to raise the home care hourly rate by 23.38 per cent, which means it could soon cost £21.95.

Councillor Matt Bennett (Conservatives, Edgbaston) argued the Labour administration at the council “seem determined to hit those with additional care needs again and again with their double whammy of higher taxes for fewer services”.

“First they closed day centres and now Labour are increasing the cost of homecare – raising charges by a whopping 23.4 per cent,” he said.

“Once again this administration is hitting the vulnerable who should be able to rely on the council to protect their interests.”

“Our service users deserve to be treated better than this,” he added.

Coun John Cotton, leader of the council, said this week that it’s important that the authority carries out changes in a “sensitive and appropriate” way when it comes to services that affect people.

The council has also proposed a small rise for the pest control charge for rats, which could rise from £24 to £26.40.

Amid the ongoing bin strikes, there have recently been calls to scrap the charge completely, described by one opposition councillor as Birmingham’s ‘rat tax’.

“Clearly we keep all of our savings proposals under review,” Coun Cotton said when he was asked about this particular charge this week.

“We want to ensure that we’ve been monitoring the impact of any changes and that’ll certainly be something we continue to do as we go forward through the year.”

He also told the media on Tuesday, February 4, that the council had made a “great deal of progress” over the past 12 months on its improvement journey as well as the delivery of a “challenging” budget.

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He added: “This budget plan seeks to address the major pressures that we know we have around social care and housing.”

Coun Cotton went on to say the council was working “constructively” with the new Labour government and argued they were helping the authority to rebuild, saying the finance settlement had provided a “significant boost”.

Out of the hundreds and hundreds included in the full list, here’s just a tiny handful of the council services which could be affected by fee/charge rises:

Service/charge // gross charge 2024/25 // proposed gross charge 2025/26 // % change

Adult social care

Home care hourly rate all clients (external provision only) // £17.79 // £21.95 // 23.38%

Travel Passes – Full Validity // £75 // £82.50 // 10%

Bereavement services

Resident fee – Standard grave // £2,500 // £2,750 // 10%

Use of crematorium chapel for burial or memorial service // £450 // £495 // 10%

Resident fee for late cancellation of funeral booking // £275 // £302.50 // 10%

Resident fee – Earthen grave for cremation ashes (for two caskets) // £800 // £880 // 10%

Use of Handsworth cemetery chapel including use of organ and, if required, provision of recorded music – resident fee // £320 // £352 // 10%

Domestic pest control

Rats – all domestic treatments (inclusive of VAT) // £24 // £26.40 // 10%

Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park Admission Charges

Adults // £8.40 // £8.90 // 5.95%

Adults – Peak (Weekends, Bank Holidays and School Holidays) // £10 // £11 // 10%

Child aged 3 to 15 years inclusive // £4.20 // £4.40 // 4.76%

Child aged 3 to 15 years inclusive – Peak (Weekends, Bank Holidays, and School Holidays) // £6 // £6.50 // 8.33%

Waste

Garden Waste (annual) // £60 // £61.80 // 3%

Bulky Waste (per collection) // £45 // £55 // // 22.22%

Sport and leisure

Athletics – Alexander Stadium main track only // £184 // £202.50 // 10.05%

Billesley Indoor Tennis Centre – indoor court hire (peak times – adult) // £30.30 // £33.50 // 10.56%

Artificial Pitch – Saltley (adult) // £163 // £179.50 // 10.12%

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Parking

Jewellery Quarter and Gun Zone Season Tickets (annual – residents) // £299 // £329 // 10.03%

Digbeth and Irish Quarter (residents permit) // £289 // £318 // 10.03%

Street filming

Crew – up to 10 people // £72 // £80 // 11.11%

Crew – 150 + // £1,000 // £1,100 // 10%

Drone Permits // £198 // £218 // 10.10%

Dropped Kerb Site Inspection Fee // £113 // £125 // 10.62%

Dropped Kerb Administration Fee // £326 // £375 // 15.03%