Birmingham City Council has announced yet another delay to its troubled replacement Oracle finance system, confirming that the re‑implementation will not be completed in time for the April 2026 deadline. The earliest it will now be ready is the Summer of 2026, but this could also move depending on how tests go in the coming months.
The Council first decided to replace its ERP system in 2015. The original business case anticipated implementation by 2020, at a cost of £19 million. When the system eventually went live in April 2022, it failed almost immediately, details of which were kept from the public for a year, with concerns from the Local Conservatives brushed aside as ‘teething problems’. Following the Council’s effective bankruptcy and subsequent government intervention, Labour committed to delivering a functioning system by April 2026. It has now been confirmed that this deadline will also be missed.
Councillor Robert Alden (Con, Erdington), Leader of the Opposition and Birmingham Local Conservatives, said:
Perhaps the saddest part of all this is how predictable it was that Labour would again fail to meet their own target. This is an Administration lacking leadership and seemingly unable to get anything right. We now know the Council will go into next May’s local elections without a functioning finance system, without resolving Equal Pay, without delivering the transformation needed to balance the books sustainably, and increasingly likely to still be facing industrial action. Labour are leaving a monumental mess for any new Administration to clean up. It is clear that only the Local Conservatives have the plan and the capability to clean up our city and put the finances back on track.
Councillor Meirion Jenkins (Con, Sutton Mere Green), Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, added:
For a £3bn‑a‑year organisation to be without a properly functioning accounting system for over four years is unthinkable. Almost any private sector organisation would have folded by now. But in Labour-run Birmingham City Council, it is the taxpayer who keeps footing the bill. The project has been catastrophically mismanaged. Labour has spent more than £150 million and still failed to deliver what they set out to do over a decade ago. It is time for them to step aside and let someone take charge who will put residents and taxpayers first.
Birmingham City Council's botched IT rollout in numbers:
- Over 4 years without a properly working finance system. 4 years late already, now projected to be a further 4 months before it is finally working.
- 11 years since the Council first said they needed to replace the Council Finance systems
- £19 Million, the original budget for the new IT system.
- Over £170 MILLION, the actual cost to residents of Labour's botched IT rollout - so far...
