£13m set aside to pay for council job cuts

A report to Cabinet members at Labour-run Hull Council says they expect a “small” number of compulsory redundancies as a result of restructuring this year.

It says job losses are “inevitable” in order to cut costs and that more will leave as a result of modernisation programmes and further central Government cuts.

The council has to save £23m this year and faces further cuts of between £48m and £67m by 2019/20.

In the past five years the workforce has shrunk from 6,110 full-time posts to 4,704, with the majority leaving under the previous Lib Dem administration. Another 50 to 100 jobs could go this year.

Council leader Coun Steve Brady said many of those who had left in recent years had been “willing volunteers”. Others had retired or been on fixed term contracts that had not been renewed.

He said: “I’d like to think across the piste we have managed to keep most of the services running in case of better times ahead. But if Government increases cuts on local services all bets are off.

“Only then will the public know what cuts to public services really mean.”

However Unison shop steward Mike Jameson said they would be holding a rally against cuts outside the Guildhall ahead of Thursday’s budget-setting meeting.

He said: “Obviously we don’t accept any job cuts. Our members are struggling, they had many cuts to terms and conditions, which means there isn’t enough money going into the local economy. It’s a total vicious cycle.”