BRITAIN’S biggest local authority is facing a £1 billion asset sell-off because Tory councillors stubbornly resisted employees’ equal pay claims.

For years Tory-run Birmingham City Council resisted union appeals to settle the issue and squandered millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money on legal action in a dispute stretching back to 1997.

Courts have finally ruled in favour of the equal pay claimants — most of whom are women — dumping a billion-pound bill for back-pay on the council, now controlled by Labour.

The council’s only way of paying is by selling off assets and there is speculation that the landmark National Exhibition Centre (NEC) building could be sold.

Public-sector union Unison head of local government Heather Wakefield warned that public assets like the NEC are a high price for local residents to pay, with the council losing a valuable revenue stream.

“It is ridiculous that, more than 40 years since the Equal Pay Act came into force, the union is still fighting equal pay claims on behalf of women members,” Ms Wakefield said.

Among the thousands of workers involved are home care workers and school cooks who were paid less than men for work of equal value.

Birmingham Edgbaston Labour MP Gisela Stuart said: “The previous Tory-led council could have settled. They kept challenging the court decisions time and time again.”

Legal firm Leigh Day represents more than 5,000 women taking equal pay claims against local authorities including Birmingham.

The company’s Chris Benson said that the council is left with so much to pay because they owe women many years of wages, with interest on top.

General union GMB national secretary of public services Brian Strutton said: “Birmingham City Council has spent years and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money trying to avoid the legal obligation to give their female staff equal pay.

“The council has had an outstanding commitment to sort this out since 1997 and if they had paid up earlier they would not be in the mess they are in now.”

A council spokesman said the sales should be seen in the context of wider budget challenges faced by local authorities including the financing of equal pay liabilities.

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