Council Budget figures (why Labour's leaflets are misleading - Green Waste and Cuts)

The Labour Party have made many claims about how much money is being cut from Birmingham's budgets.  They are doing this to justify their prioritisation of cutting the green waste collection.  It happens to be that Solihull spends in total around £700 per annum less per dwelling, but still provides a free green waste service (one bin - they charge for a second bin)

However, these are the figures in total (in £million) including the forecasts.  It is important to remember that Labour nationally are committed to the 15/16 figure and have said they will make further cuts if they come into government (although the cuts may not be the same)

I have in front of me a Labour leaflet claiming the total cuts are two thirds.  I don't see that from the quoted figures below.

Net Budgets 2011/12 onwards
	Actual Figures				Forecasts based on 2014+ LTFP
	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18
Council Tax	332.198	333.218	252.104	258.529	267.499	273.394	281.919
Government Grants	691.206	646.52	783.384	706.408	597.73	554.432	499.534
Net Budget	1023.404	979.738	1035.488	964.937	865.229	827.826	781.453

The big shift in grant last year is a different treatment of financing council tax benefit where the support previously given is included in the basic grant.
Additionally the council has a budget head of "savings not achieved". It would be very simple to allocate these funds to the green waste collection. In fact the saving in terms of not having to collect fly tipping would assist.