A simple guide to what a town council is, what powers it has, how it is funded, and what it could mean in practice for the Jewellery Quarter.
The Jewellery Quarter Neighbourhood Forum is consulting on the possibility of the Quarter having its own town council. That raises an obvious question: what actually is a town council, and what would it do?
Most people do not spend much time thinking about local government structures. But in places like the Jewellery Quarter, where people often feel under-represented and want a stronger say over what happens locally, the question matters.
This article is the basic explainer. It sets out what a town council is, what powers it has, how it is funded, and what it could mean in practice for the Quarter.
A town council is the most local level of elected government in England. It is a council for one specific place, made up of councillors elected by local people to focus on local issues, local priorities and the future of that area.
In some places it is called a parish council and in others a town council. The difference is mostly in the name. In urban areas, “town council” is usually the more familiar term.
What matters is that it is a proper public body. It has elected councillors, staff, meetings, a budget, and the ability to get things done locally. It would sit below Birmingham City Council, not replace it. In other words, it would give the Jewellery Quarter its own local council while Birmingham City Council would still remain the principal authority for the city as a whole.
A town council is a formal legal body.
That means it can:
This is one of the key differences between a town council and a community group like the Neigbourhood Forum. A community group can campaign and organise. A town council can do that too, but it also has a legal structure, democratic mandate and spending power. The council also has a statutory right to be consulted on important matters in the area such as planning and licensing. In Sutton Coldfield, campaigners argued for a town council precisely because they wanted a permanent, statutory and elected voice in negotiations with Birmingham City Council.
A town council gives an area a stronger local voice and a more focused local body to push things forward.
In practice, that can include:
It is important not to imagine a town council as just another talking shop. Where they work well, they combine representation with action. They can bring people together, focus attention on local problems, and create a route for local money to be used for local benefit.
Town councils can spend money on the kinds of local things people actually notice and care about. That can include:
Other town and city councils around the country run parks and open spaces, support community centres, create and manage leisure facilities and art centres, manage play areas, fund local projects, maintain public assets, invest in place making, green spaces and wayfinding, promote the area nationally, invest in tourism and invest in things that help define the identity and quality of a place. Salisbury City Council, for example, took on parks, play areas, community buildings, public toilets, allotments, cemeteries, markets and car parks as part of its local role. Sutton Coldfield Town Council was created to give the town a stronger local voice within Birmingham, with its own precept and a focus on priorities such as green spaces, car parking, planning and town centre issues. In Welwyn Garden City, campaigners argued that a local council could manage services, organise public events, support regeneration, promote the town’s identity and even take on public buildings for community benefit.
Town councils are usually funded through a precept. This is a small addition to council tax (£5-£10 per month) that is collected locally and passed to the town council to spend in its own area. That means the money is raised locally and spent locally.
This is a big part of why people are interested in the idea. It creates a dedicated local budget, rather than relying entirely on decisions made at city-wide level.
The scale of that budget can be significant. Sutton Coldfield Town Council was created with a precept of £1.8 million, to be spent on behalf of residents in Sutton Coldfield.
For the Jewellery Quarter, the Forum’s current working estimate is that a town council could raise around £300,000 -£600,000 a year to spend just in the Jewellery Quarter. That would create a meaningful local budget for improvements, projects, services and priorities chosen for this area.
Town councils also keep 25% of all CIL money from the area. CIL money is paid by developers to offset the impact of their development. In the Jewellery Quarter there will be approcimately £600,000 of CIL money in the next 5-10 years that the council would be able to spend on anything residents choose.
In additon town councils have access to a wider range of funding than traditional community groups. They can apply for more central government funding dedicated to town councils, larger pots of lottery funding and larger pots of heritage funding. They can also enter into contracts to match funding with other local organisations. A town council could encourage significant grant funding into the area if managed correclty and in line with residents wishes.
A town council is made up of elected councillors. Residents vote for them every four years, and those councillors then make decisions in public meetings on behalf of the area. Councillors set priorities and direction and then manage staff to enact those priorities on their behalf.
Most town councils have at least one clerk and then a small group of administrative staff who handle governance, budgets, legal process and day-to-day management. Larger councils can employ wider teams depending on what they choose to run.
Salisbury City Council, for example, organised itself with councillors focusing on strategic decisions while officers handled much of the service delivery and day-to-day operation.
So a town council is not just a panel of elected people. It is an institution with the staff and structure to keep things moving.
Yes, by agreement.
A town council can take on some local services and assets from the principal authority where both sides agree. That could include the management of certain public spaces, buildings, facilities or local service areas. The council can take on any services that it can prove it would be able to effectively manage. And in these areas it can negotiate for a portion of council tax to be paid in proportioe. But there are limits.
A town council would not take over the major statutory services that Birmingham City Council and other public bodies are legally responsible for. It would not become the authority for things like:
That is an important distinction. A town council can have influence over a wide range of issues, and it can directly run some local services and assets by agreement, but it does not replace the city council.
This conversation is happening because the Jewellery Quarter is a distinctive part of Birmingham with its own character, its own challenges and its own sense of place. It is being discussed because:
At heart, this is a conversation about community governance. Should the Jewellery Quarter have its own elected local body, with its own budget and its own mandate to focus on this area?
Yes. This is a normal part of local democracy in large parts of the country, even if it is less common in Birmingham. There are around 10,000 parish and town councils in England and they are the most local tier of government.
The most local example is Sutton Coldfield, which successfully established its own town council in Birmingham after a long campaign, consultation and review process. Campaigners there argued that the size of Birmingham City Council made it hard for the needs of towns and neighbourhoods to be heard properly, and that a town council would give residents a more direct and permanent voice.
So this is not an unusual or experimental idea. It is an established model of local government that already operates in many parts of the country.
In Birmingham, the route to a town council it begins with a Community Governance Review. This is a process where the council reviews community governance in the area and analyses if a town council is appropriate. If the proposal gained enough support, the council could then hold a consultative ballot so local residents could vote on it. If the ballot supported the idea and the council agreed, it would then make the formal legal order to create the new council and move to elections and set-up. The whole process takes around 2 years.
If you want independent background reading, these are good places to start:
Find information about living in the Jewellery Quarter, local campaigns, issues and news.
