Birmingham City Council, Europe's largest local authority, should be the jewel in the crown of British local democracy. Instead, it has spent the last decade or more lumbering from one crisis to another, tearing through leaders and chief executives in an effort to find an elusive winning combination to turn its fortunes around.

In the latest triumvirate of calamities, the Labour party ousted leader Ian Ward in the wake of a scathing report on the internal politics; it emerged a back office HR and IT contract with Oracle that should have cost £20m could end up costing up to £140m; and the council admitted to a £750m equal pay liability – an issue that should have been resolved a decade ago.