There’s a small white building in the middle of a Birmingham park that has become the unlikely headquarters for a quiet resistance movement.
A few years ago, a group of locals took over the quaint Sons of Rest building in the middle of Handsworth Park so they could host their own “tea and social” afternoon.
“We all hated the isolation of lockdown during COVIDso we decided to come together in this building a few times a week,” says Surinder Guru, one of the volunteers.
Image: Surinder says the building has formed a community spirit
In the beginning, they’d bring their own teabags. Then one man decided to make some soup. Then they all decided to take turns making soup for everyone.
And that grew into a community kitchen for anyone who wants to come.
“It’s turning into a meeting place for different groups who don’t normally meet,” says Surinder.
“We get Indian people, white British men and women, white European men and women, we’ve got Afro-Caribbean people, children and older people.
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“It’s making use of a building that would otherwise have been sold off to God knows who.”
Image: This is where the resistance movement lies
Communities under threat
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But this community haven – and thousands like it – is under threat because the council here is in a financial mess.
Birmingham City Council, Europe’s biggest local authority, recently declared itself effectively bankrupt, issuing what is called a Section 114 order.
That means the council does not think it has enough money to maintain essential services next year.
A backlog of equal pay claims and a failed IT system has crippled its finances.
It is a bit like in Monopoly, when a player runs out of money, their only option is to start selling off their assets.
So every asset that the council owns is now under review and could be “disposed of” to help meet a forecasted £760m equal pay bill.
Landmarks that help make the city unique are among the properties under investigation.
Nothing is off the table – historic buildings, libraries, parks, entertainment venues, car parks and community centre are all at risk.
According to Locality, the organisation which represents nearly 2,000 small community groups across the country, about 6,000 public buildings and spaces are sold off by councils every year.
Tony Armstrong, CEO of Locality, said: “We’re calling on all parties to introduce a community right to buy, which would make it much easier for local people to take local buildings into community ownership.
“And we also want them to go further, passing more powers to communities so they can help create local jobs, services and opportunities.
Image: Landmarks that help make the city unique are among the properties under investigation
‘Keep your hands off our communities’
Surinder says she is angry that the city has been put into this situation.
“My message to the council is ‘keep your hands off our communities’.
“And that message is not just to the council but to central government too.
“The council needs to make better decisions but governments also need to fund councils properly.”
Councils have seen a stark reduction in the amount of money handed to them from central government over the last decade.
These grant payments were cut by 40% in real terms between 2009-10 and 2019-20, from £46.5bn to £28bn, according to the Institute for Government.
A spokesperson for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities said they were supporting the city and its concerned communities.
“Birmingham City Council faces a unique financial situation following its failure to get a grip of the significant issues it faces, from its equal pay liability to the implementation of its IT system.
“That is why we are working closely with the Commissioner team, who were appointed at the Council last October, to protect local residents and tackle the serious financial and governance problems.
“Our £150m Community Ownership Fund is also supporting communities to take ownership of assets at risk of closure and we have already secured the future of four community assets in Birmingham with £996,000 of funding.”
But now, overspent councils elsewhere are desperately trying to make the sums add up in order to meet their legal duty to balance their budgets by next April.
That is leading to cuts to things like museums, leisure centres, bus subsidies and grants to local charities.
At the same time there is relentless pressure on statutory services such as social care, and temporary accommodation for homeless families.
Campaigners across Birmingham are now fighting to protect their communities from the selloff in a David and Goliath-type battle.
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1:13
‘Inquiry into Birmingham City Council’
Fighting to save landmarks
The Save Birmingham Campaign was launched in response to the council’s effective bankruptcy.
Save Birmingham organiser Jeevan Jones said since the launch over 1,000 residents have nominated nearly 200 places on the savebirmingham.org website, ranging from community and leisure centres, parks and open spaces, heritage landmarks and cultural venues.
It is the first scheme of its kind in the country designed to scupper a sell-off of beloved community facilities.
“Our campaign aims to protect community places, to ensure the residents of Birmingham don’t lose out due to problems they didn’t cause. Once community places are lost, they stay lost.
“The last thing we want is for people to lose access to these community places.”
The campaign aims to register under-threat council-owned properties and spaces as “assets of community value” in an attempt to slow down the sale to give locals a chance to see if they can take them over.
“Our hope is the Save Birmingham campaign can act as a blueprint for the dozens of councils facing severe financial problems through positive community-led solutions that avoid damaging fire sales,” said Mr Jones.
Image: ‘The council needs to make better decisions but governments also need to fund councils properly’ says Surinder
‘No council is immune’
The Local Government Association says councils face a funding gap of £4bn over the next year and need more support from central government.
Councillor Shaun Davies, who chairs the LGA, told Sky News: “No council is immune to the growing risk to their financial sustainability and many now face the prospect of being unable to meet their legal duty to set a balanced budget and having Section 114 reports issued.
“It is therefore unthinkable that the government has not provided desperately needed new funding for local services in 2024-25.
Although councils are working hard to reduce costs where possible, this means the local services our communities rely on every day are now exposed to further cuts.
An MP who decided until recently to “never speak” about the abuse he suffered as a child has shared his harrowing story so that “no kid has to go through” what he did.
Josh Babarinde describes being physically abused by his mother’s former partner from the age of four, and remembers crying himself to sleep under the covers “hearing shouts, hearing screams and things smash”.
He says he became hypervigilant growing up and felt safe at school but “like he was treading on eggshells” in his own home.
The Eastbourne MP, who is also the Liberal Democrats’ justice spokesperson, says his experience has driven his politics. He is calling on the government to stop abusers “slipping through the net” and being released from prison early.
Opening up about his story in his twenties was “difficult” but looking back, Mr Babarinde says, he is “so proud of the resilience of that kid”.
The MP recently found his childhood diary containing Star Wars drawings alongside an entry he wrote from the bathroom. The diary, he recalls, wrote: “I’m really going to try to go (to the toilet) but I can’t. Oh my goodness, I’m gonna be in so much trouble, I’m going to get smacked so hard.”
Then an entry five minutes later: “I still haven’t done anything, I’m going to be in so much trouble.”
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He says reading the entry reminded him of how “helpless” he felt.
“It was mortifying,” he says. “An abuser takes away your sense of self-worth.”
Image: Mr Babarinde says he wants the government to ‘properly recognise domestic abuse crimes in the law’
The 32-year-old is calling on the government to change the law to make domestic abuse a specific criminal offence. The change would mean, he argues, abusers can no longer effectively disguise their history under other offences like assault.
He says the Ministry of Justice’s early release scheme, which has seen thousands of prisoners released early to ease overcrowding, has failed to exclude domestic abusers despite government promises because there is no formal categorisation for offenders.
It is impossible, he argues, to know exactly how many domestic abusers are in prison currently so perpetrators are “slipping through the net” on early release.
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2:39
January: Rising violence against women and girls
Mr Babarinde says the uncertainty means victims and survivors are not able to prepare for their abuser’s release.
He said: “They might need to move house or move their kids to a new school, shop in different places. All of these kind of things are so important, and so that’s why that commitment the government made was so important.”
A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said: “Our thoughts are with all victims of domestic abuse – it takes immense courage to speak out.
“We are building a justice system that puts victims first – strengthening support, increasing transparency, and giving people the confidence to come forward and be heard.”
In common with many parents across the country, here’s a conversation that I have with my young daughter on a semi-regular basis (bear with me, this will take on some political relevance eventually).
Me: “So it’s 15 minutes until your bedtime, you can either have a little bit of TV or do a jigsaw, not both.”
Daughter: “Ummmm, I want to watch TV.”
Me: “That’s fine, but it’s bed after that, you can’t do a jigsaw as well.”
Fast-forward 15 minutes.
Me: “Right, TV off now please, bedtime.”
(Pause)
Daughter: “I want to do a jigsaw.”
Now replace me with the government, the TV and jigsaw options with axing welfare cuts and scrapping the two-child cap, and my daughter with rebellious backbenchers.
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6:36
Rachel Reeves’s fiscal dilemma
That is the tension currently present between Downing Street and Labour MPs. And my initial ultimatum is the messaging being pumped out from the government this weekend.
In essence: you’ve had your welfare U-turn, so there’s no money left for the two-child cap to go as well.
As an aside – and before my inbox fills with angry emails lambasting me for using such a crude metaphor for policies that fundamentally alter the lives of some of the most vulnerable in society – yes, I hear you, and that’s part of my point.
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9:11
Welfare U-turn ‘has come at cost’
For many in Labour, this approach feels like the lives of their constituents are being used in a childish game of horse-trading.
So what can be done?
Well, the government could change the rules.
Altering the fiscal rules is – and will likely remain – an extremely unlikely solution. But as it happens, one of Labour’s proverbial grandparents has just popped round with a different suggestion.
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5:31
Welfare: ‘Didn’t get process right’ – PM
A wealth tax, Lord Neil Kinnock says, is the necessary outcome of the economic restrictions the party has placed on itself.
Ever the Labour storyteller, Lord Kinnock believes this would allow the government to craft a more compelling narrative about whose side this administration is on.
That could be valuable, given one of the big gripes from many backbench critics is that they still don’t really understand what this prime minister stands for – and by extension, what all these “difficult decisions” are in aid of.
The downside is whether it will actually raise much money.
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16:02
Is Corbyn an existential risk to Labour?
The super-rich may have lots of assets to take a slice from, but they also have expensive lawyers ready to find novel ways to keep their client’s cash away from the prying eyes of the state.
Or, of course, they could just leave – as many are doing already.
In the short term, the future is a bit easier to predict.
If Downing Street is indeed now saying there is no money to scrap the two-child cap (after heavy briefing in the opposite direction just weeks ago), an almighty tantrum from the backbenches is inevitable.
And as every parent knows, the more you give in, the harder it becomes to hold the line.
The UK has re-established diplomatic ties with Syria, David Lammy has said, as he made the first visit to the country by a British minister for 14 years.
The foreign secretary visited Damascus and met with interim president Ahmed al Sharaa, also the leader of the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), and foreign minister Asaad al Shaibani.
In a statement, Mr Lammy said a “stable Syria is in the UK’s interests” and added: “I’ve seen first-hand the remarkable progress Syrians have made in rebuilding their lives and their country.
“After over a decade of conflict, there is renewed hope for the Syrian people.
“The UK is re-establishing diplomatic relations because it is in our interests to support the new government to deliver their commitment to build a stable, more secure and prosperous future for all Syrians.”
Image: Foreign Secretary David Lammy with Syria’s interim president Ahmed al Sharaa in Damascus. Pic: X / @DavidLammy
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has also announced a £94.5m support package for urgent humanitarian aid and to support the country’s long-term recovery, after a number of British sanctions against the country were lifted in April.
While HTS is still classified as a proscribed terror group, Sir Keir Starmer said last year that it could be removed from the list.
The Syrian president’s office also said on Saturday that the president and Mr Lammy discussed co-operation, as well as the latest developments in the Middle East.
Since Assad fled Syria in December, a transitional government headed by Mr al Sharaa was announced in March and a number of western countries have restored ties.
In May, US President Donald Trump said the United States would lift long-standing sanctions on Syria and normalise relations during a speech at the US-Saudi investment conference.
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1:12
From May: Trump says US will end sanctions for Syria
He said he wanted to give the country “a chance at peace” and added: “There is a new government that will hopefully succeed.
“I say good luck, Syria. Show us something special.”