Dear Editor, Some bankers may have been pretty bad at running their banks responsibly, but it certainly does not follow that the council could do a better job. We support Coun Deirdre Alden’s concerns over the proposed municipal Birmingham bank.

The announcement of this in the press in recent weeks has, we believe, unnecessarily raised expectations about what this proposed scheme might deliver.

We are particularly alarmed at the idea of “top up” loans to fund deposits for mortgages, which sounds somewhat like funding the riskiest part of a 100 per cent mortgage. In other words, we would be funding loans the banks do not wish to.

We are all now having to live with the consequence of irresponsible lending and we need to learn from those mistakes rather than repeat them.

We believe that enough taxpayers’ money has been poured into the banking system of late without the need for an extra contribution from the council taxpayers of Birmingham.

Coun Matt Bennett

Coun Gareth Compton

Coun Peter Smallbone

Coun Philip Parkin

Coun Peter Howard

Coun Randal Brew

Coun Reg Corns

Coun Graham Green

Coun Colin Hughes

Coun Margaret Waddington

Coun Matt Bennett