London-Birmingham Labour MP Preet Kaur Gill has welcomed a major government spending announcement that will see £78 billion distributed across England, including £651 million ring-fenced for Birmingham—a sum she says will begin reversing the damage inflicted by more than a decade of cuts.
The funding package, revealed this week, is designed to support the recovery of struggling local authorities and restore essential neighbourhood services. For Birmingham, the money will be channelled into libraries, youth services, street-cleaning, community hubs, bin collections, housing assistance and children’s services—areas that have faced sustained pressure amid rising demand and shrinking budgets.
One of the most significant shifts is structural rather than financial. According to Gill, Birmingham will now benefit from the first multi-year financial settlement in more than 10 years, offering stability and predictability for a council that has spent years “lurching from one emergency to another.”
https://preetkaurgill.co.uk/so/28PitG49_?languageTag=en&cid=4bf7a04a-578c-4389-84a2-50283a022fe1®ion=9f3b7c1d-acd7-48d9-bd86-43cba5b4b770
“This ends the cycle of crisis management,” she said, arguing that councils cannot plan long-term services without long-term budgets.
Gill also highlighted the government’s decision to scrap the previous funding model, which critics say allowed some councils to accumulate reserves while others slid toward financial collapse. The replacement system, she noted, is built on evidence-based assessments of deprivation and actual service costs, ensuring that cities like Birmingham—where poverty rates and service demand are higher—receive equitable support.
Calling the fresh allocation “a better deal for Birmingham,” Gill said communities across the city have felt the impact of austerity more acutely than Westminster politicians realise.
Speaking in Parliament, she pressed ministers on why Labour appears to be the only party willing to invest seriously in urban recovery, adding that frontline communities in Birmingham have endured cuts “at every level,” from youth clubs and libraries to childcare and housing support.
Gill also drew attention to the £20 million earmarked for the Bartley Green area under the ‘Pride in Place’ initiative, which aims to invest in neighbourhood identity, public spaces and community infrastructure.
“I know first-hand how badly communities have been hit,” she told MPs. “This funding is desperately needed—and long overdue.”
With Birmingham emerging from a period of high-profile financial strain, Gill framed the announcement as both a turning point and a political statement: namely, that only a change of priorities in Westminster can deliver lasting recovery.
As councils prepare their long-term strategies around the new settlement, Gill said residents should expect visible improvements on the ground, from cleaner streets and reopened public spaces to strengthened support for vulnerable families.
For now, she said, Birmingham finally has room to breathe—and to rebuild.