Councils to shed 140,000 jobs
Around 140,000 local authority jobs are expected to be lost in the next year as a result of spending cuts, council leaders have warned.
New analysis by the Local Government Group has revealed the scale of job losses is likely to be 40 per cent higher than was originally thought following last month’s comprehensive spending review.
The LGA originally predicted 100,000 posts would go after chancellor George Osborne set out the broad framework for public spending in the June Budget. But the government’s decision to ‘front load’ a large proportion of the cuts into the first year - rather than allowing councils to spread them evenly over the four years of the spending review - is likely to result in nearer 140,000 posts being lost, they said.
Councils will have to reduce their budgets by an average of 11 per cent in 2011/12 after the unexpected severity of the first year cuts.
The government has set up a £200 million capitalisation fund to help councils with the cost of cutting jobs but the LGA is calling for moves to further ease the effect of these reductions in the forthcoming local government finance settlement so councils can spread the cuts more evenly over the next four years.
Baroness Margaret Eaton, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: ‘The unexpected severity of the cuts that will have to be made next year will put many councils in an unprecedented and difficult position.
‘Some jobs will go in natural wastage, not filling vacancies and voluntary redundancy, however, we cannot escape the fact that some losses will be dedicated professional posts that, given a choice, councils would not want to see go. These are the tough choices we are going to have to make.
‘Local government will have to make cuts next year of around £2 billion more than we anticipated just a month ago. This stifles the opportunities for innovation and means town halls will be forced to cut further and deeper next year than they first thought.’
