Council facing cash cuts warns of 2,000 job losses

One of the country's biggest local authorities has warned of 2,000 redundancies, sparking threats of industrial action and taking the council jobs cull caused by the Government's spending cuts to almost 114,000.

Manchester City Council revealed it was having 110m slashed off its budget of 500m to 600m this year, with tens of millions more next year, saying it will have to axe almost a fifth of its workforce.

Sir Richard Leese, leader of the Labour-controlled authority, complained about the "unfairness" of the Government's financial grant settlement for Manchester, while unions reacted with fury.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The GMB said a total of 113,765 jobs were now under threat at 145 councils across Britain, with almost all of the authorities involved in a 90-day statutory consultation period with unions and staff on how to deal with the cuts.

Unite raised the threat of industrial action to fight the huge number of planned redundancies in Manchester.

Regional officer Keith Hutson said: "Our members are outraged. This is the clear result of the coalition's austerity measures and cutbacks to local government funding announced before Christmas. It will have a devastating effect on services and the people that use them."

Sir Richard said: "We now have to find 110m in savings next year – 60 million more than expected – because of front-loading and the re-distribution of money from Manchester to more affluent areas.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

"The accelerated cuts mean we can no longer achieve the staffing reductions we have been forced into through natural turnover, which is why we are proposing a time-limited offer of voluntary severance and voluntary early retirement."

The Local Government Association, which has already warned that spending cuts will cost 140,000 jobs, said councils were being left with "no choice" but to axe posts.

Unison leader Dave Prentis, said: "The shockwaves of 2,000 job losses will spread across the city of Manchester and beyond."