Hundreds of jobs to go at Leeds City Council as part of “brutal” public spending cuts
475 jobs are to be lost at Leeds City Council as part of plans to reduce spending by £76m next year.
The budget proposals put forward are a response to another year of deep cuts in government funding and other grants which are used to support public services.
Cllr Keith Wakefield, leader of Leeds City Council, described the budget cuts as “brutal” as he set out the tough choices ahead.
He said: “I warned in October the budget for next year was going to be the toughest yet and the proposals being put forward are as brutal as I feared. Local authorities simply have nowhere else to go now but make the grim choices they have been avoiding for the last four years.
“Taking into account loss of grant funding and other factors, we have had to save £250million in Leeds alone since 2010, and as a region the loss of grant equates to £470million in that time – colossal amounts of money, and yet we continue to be asked to make more and more savings.
“We have tried as hard as possible to limit the impact on frontline services but it’s unavoidable that whatever we do now is going to be very painful.”
Among the proposals are council housing rent increases of 2.88%, fees and charges across the council to increase by at least inflation, a 6% reduction in roads maintenance, leisure centres and council contact centres to operate reduced opening hours, nursery fees up 5.1% and grants to the third sector to be reduced, including a 20% drop for arts organisations.
Council tax could also rise, with the council waiting for further information from the Government before making a final decision.
Leeds City Council is seeking to save a further £23.4m in efficiency savings in how it delivers services, plus a further £2.1m from more efficient use of its buildings.
Cllr Wakefield thanked the unions and staff for their willingness to help find the best solution, particularly as the council looks to avoid making anyone compulsorily redundant.
“We are trying to respect those people – who are very professional, dedicated public servants – and we are trying to ease some of that challenge by making the redundancies voluntary and not compulsory,” he added.
The cuts for 2015-16 come on the back of £250m of cuts since 2010. This has seen more than 2,000 full-time jobs being lost while £30m of savings were found through procurement and demand management.
It has closed seven residential homes, 12 day centres, 14 libraries, two leisure centres, two community centres, a one-stop centre and three hostels, while it has also reduced buildings maintenance by £1m.
The council’s executive board will discuss the budget proposals on Wednesday, December 17, before the final budget is put before a full council meeting in February.
