Birmingham City Council, which provides services for more than one million people, filed a Section 114 notice on Tuesday, halting all spending except on essential services. The deficit arose due to difficulties paying between £650 million (around $816 million) and £760 million (around $954 million) in equal pay claims, the notice report says. The city now expects to have a deficit of £87 million ($109 million) for the 2023-24 financial year.
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Birmingham’s chief executive is on holiday in New York 
Maybe he’s trying to pick up some pointers.
When New York Teetered on the Brink of Bankruptcy
https://archive.nytimes.com/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/when-new-york-teetered-on-the-brink-of-bankruptcy/
By midday that Friday, Oct. 17, 1975, Mr. Beame had signed a formal petition attesting to municipal default. The police commandeered squad cars, poised to serve legal papers on banks that were the city’s leading creditors. A court order was pending to preserve the city government’s assets, including cash and durable goods, like garbage trucks. A judge with whom the Beames regularly played pinochle was enlisted to order Comptroller Harrison J. Goldin to pay the salaries of city workers before paying the principal and interest due that afternoon on municipal debt.
“I have been advised by the comptroller,” a two-and-a-half-page mayoral news release began, “that the City of New York has insufficient cash on hand to meet debt obligations due today…
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