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Early signs of just how hard council spending will be hit have been revealed this week. Barking and Dagenham LBC announced up to 150 redundancies, due to the recession, and likely cuts in public sector spending over the next three years. The council warned it would need to find £13m savings to set next year's budget. Savings will include shedding agency staff, redeploying existing staff, leaving vacant council posts empty, and bringing forward a voluntary redundancy scheme for staff to take early retirement. But some compulsory redundancies may also be necessary. Chief executive, Rob Whiteman, said: ‘The continuing recession and a likely fall in the amount the council will have to spend in the next three years, means we have to make substantial savings so we can protect key services to local people in the future. ‘The council has worked hard in the last year to help local residents through tough times, but to be able to continue to provide that help, we have to reprioritise and re-focus.' He continued: ‘The council seeks to be a good employer. We employ more than 4,000 local people – but no council, even in the best of times, can prevent job losses and, given the severity of the recession and the cash squeeze we face, and with a spending climate that will get even tougher in the next few years, we cannot rule out shedding some staff.' The news came as new unitary authority, Central Bedfordshire Council, announced it might cut management posts to find savings. Cllr Maurice Jones (Conservative) said the council was ‘requiring all services to review how they work to generate more savings which we can divert to protect the frontline'.

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WHITEHALL

Council cuts 150 jobs as squeeze hits home

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