Council Tax bills across the city will go up in April as Labour choose to increase the rate by the maximum amount allowed by law. A 2.99% rise will see Band A properties paying £34.85 more per year, while Band H properties will see an extra £104.50 on their bills.

As the Labour council up the bills, national and local press are reporting on the cost-of-living crisis gripping local families.

“The district of Hodge Hill, four miles east of Birmingham city centre, is officially the country’s worst-hit area for fuel poverty.

It is a place where schoolkids hand over lunchbox treats for poorer, hungrier children.

And where even the homeless make contributions to foodbanks.

The constituency is home to 130,000 people and nearly a third of families live in fuel poverty.

It has one of the highest child poverty rates, with an astonishing 52% of youngsters – nearly 20,000 – living below the breadline. Unemployment is 14.1% – one of the highest in the UK.

…you find desperate families struggling to put food on the table amid a double whammy of fuel bills and price rises at the shops.” (Mail https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/inside-district-frontline-cost-living-26395874?_ga=2.55225963.1703463647.1647991349-1411116101.1647562628)

It’s a disgrace that the government decide we’ve got money to burn on ammunition and tanks and war in eastern europe, in Yemen and all manner of exotic locations, but can’t find money to burn heating homes and feeding children. Labour and Tories are equally guilty of tax rises, poverty pay, hungry children and serving the rich whilst the working class is left to get poorer and poorer.

This May 5, in Birmingham, many voters will get the chance to vote for change. Vote for the Workers Party – Birmingham, and send a message to those who take our votes for granted.