Birmingham City Council has approved plans to hike council tax by 21% over the next two years.

Councillors also voted in favour of £300m in cuts over the same period.

The Unite union described the move as “devastating for Birmingham council’s workers and the entire city”.

It comes after the local authority effectively declared bankruptcy last year after being hit with a £760m bill to settle equal pay claims.

In September town hall officials issued a section 114 notice, confirming that all new spending, with the exception of protecting vulnerable people and statutory services, must stop immediately.

Following the vote on Tuesday night, Unite‘s national officer for local authorities Clare Keogh said: “Vital public services are on the brink of being all but destroyed.

“This is the culmination of years and years of brutal budget reductions by central government.

“Birmingham council’s workers, who have already suffered well over a decade of falling wages and whose efforts have ensured increasingly depleted services functioned, must not pay the price for a crisis they didn’t create.”

The Labour-run council is the largest local authority in Europe.

Be the first to get Breaking News

Install the Sky News app for free

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

Please refresh the page for the fullest version.

You can receive breaking news alerts on a smartphone or tablet via the Sky News app. You can also follow @SkyNews on X or subscribe to our YouTube channel to keep up with the latest news.

Related posts:

Police to be given £30m extra funding pot to tackle violence hotspots Harry says Charles ‘stopped taking my calls’ – but he wants to ‘heal’ relationship with his father Girl, 10, tasered by police in London Hottest September day for Scotland since 1906 – but thunderstorms are on the way Government opens consultation on plans to make COVID vaccination compulsory for frontline health staff 30,000 trees to be felled in UK as climate change drives disease PM cancels visit after family member tests positive for COVID ‘No convincing case’ for ‘Britcoin’ cryptocurrency, committee says Migration policy to ‘seal off all loopholes’ as officials work towards deportation flights ‘by summer’ What experts are saying about the chance of a heatwave in the UK this summer Rugby tackle height to be lowered as concerns over concussions and head injuries grow Suits ewe: ‘Britain’s loneliest sheep’ is doing ‘absolutely phenomenal’ in new home