Birmingham Local Conservatives have today unveiled their plan for the 2026 local elections, setting out a comprehensive plan to transform the city through cleaner streets, safer communities, restoring family housing, stronger finances, and renewed economic growth.
Titled “Our Plan to Clean Up the City”, the manifesto outlines a wide-ranging plan aimed at cleaning up the Council and Birmingham. The plan sets out how to clean up the city and tackle years of decline under Labour leadership.
The plan focuses on a clear central mission: to balance the books, end the strike, save weekly bin collections and clean up Birmingham. This will help unlock its full potential for residents, businesses, and communities alike.
A City Ready for Renewal
In the manifesto’s foreword, Local Conservatives highlight Birmingham’s historic role as a global hub of innovation and industry, while arguing that mismanagement and neglect have left the city struggling with issues such as uncollected waste, deteriorating infrastructure, and financial instability.
This is a blueprint for action. We will build a cleaner, safer, more prosperous city that honours its heritage while embracing the future.
Key Commitments
The manifesto sets out a series of headline pledges across major policy areas:
- Cleaner Streets and Neighbourhoods: Plans include maintaining weekly bin collections, ending ongoing bin strikes, introducing thousands of new litter bins, cracking down on fly-tipping, and expanding street cleaning and graffiti removal.
- Fixing Roads and Transport: Releasing some of the £200 million highways reserve to fix the potholes now and reduce maintenance costs in the long run, alongside proposals for improved public transport, expanded rail and metro infrastructure, and exploration of a future underground system.
- Restoring family housing and improving standards: The party pledges to prioritise family housing, restrict the spread of HMOs and exempt accommodation, by starting to buy up exempt accommodation and HMO properties and convert back to family housing, and improve standards across council housing. Changing planning polices to ensure new housing is in keeping with the character of the city, reflecting our parts of our Georgian, Edwardian and Victorian heritage and favour attractive design through gentle density for the City Centre rather than bland towers.
- Safer Communities: Increased enforcement measures, expanded CCTV use, and targeted action on antisocial behaviour aim to make neighbourhoods and high streets safer.
- Restoring Financial Stability: The manifesto commits to balancing the council’s finances, increasing transparency, reducing wasteful spending, and ending Labour's equal pay liabilities.
- Protecting Green Spaces: Commitments include protecting the Green Belt and green spaces from development, scrapping parking charges in parks, scrapping Labour's plan to build on Burford Road playing fields, and planting trees and flowers across the city.
- Economic Growth and Jobs: Plans to support local businesses with a business help desk in the Council House, boost high streets, such as working to relocate the Museum Collection Centre to Erdington High Street to create a destination of choice, invest in skills and apprenticeships, and attract new industries, aim to position Birmingham as a leading economic powerhouse once again.
- Celebrating Culture and Heritage: The manifesto also outlines ambitions to invest in cultural institutions, increase funding for the Museum, celebrate Birmingham’s history, and expand events and festivals to drive tourism, such as reinstating the St Patrick's Day Parade, launching a yearly celebration of St George's Day, holding celebrations for the 1100th annivesary of the Birth of England and the 500th Anniversary of Sutton Coldfield's Royal Charter.
A Clear Political Choice
The polls predict gains for the Local Conservative Group in Birmingham, a city which has long had a much stronger Conservative vote than any other major city. The choice facing residents on 7th May is clear: 4 more years of bankruptcy, chaos, fortnightly waste collections and bin strikes under Labour or a plan to clean up the city, end the strike, restore family housing and unleash Birmingham's full potential with the Local Conservatives.
Councillor Robert Alden (Con, Erdington), Leader of Birmingham Local Conservatives, said:
Only the Local Conservatives have a plan to end the strike, save weekly bin collections, balance the books, and clean up the City. A vote for anyone else just risks letting Labour back in with their plan for fortnightly bin collections.
Looking Ahead to 2026
With the local elections set for 7 May 2026, the party is urging residents to back what it describes as a practical and ambitious vision for change.
This is not just about fixing what’s broken; it’s about restoring Birmingham to where it belongs, at the heart of England, as the greatest city in the world.
Councillor Alden concluded,
On 7 May, don’t just hope for a cleaner city. Vote for one. Vote Local Conservatives.
