Up to 300 jobs a year will go at Manchester council as bosses work to cut town hall spending - without hikes in council tax.
The cutbacks, which chiefs pledge will involve no compulsory redundancies, emerged as the council approved its budget for the next year.
Plans to make £37m of cuts by 2013 – as detailed in the M.E.N last week - will not include a rise in council tax or extra costs on services over the next 12 months, a full council meeting was told yesterday.
But finance chief, Coun Bernard Priest, told the M.E.N it would mean that many of the 500 or so staff who leave the council each year would not be replaced.
He estimates that up to 300 of those jobs, mostly administrative, will go as more services are provided to residents online.
Coun Priest said: “We have built this budget around no compulsory redundancies.
“Council tax will not go up and there will not be service cuts but we have to make savings by becoming a lot more efficient.
“Something such as getting a disabled badge can be done for a few pence online rather than costing the council £20.
“Around 500 people leave the council each year and I expect up to 300 of those, mostly administrative, will not be replaced. The existing workforce will be trained to be more flexible and have transferable skills. Front-line services will not be affected – for example if a children's social worker goes, they will be replaced.”
Redundancies
He said no one would be asked to take redundancy.
Outlining budget priorities to yesterday's full council meeting, Coun Priest said departments would continue to invest in education, skills and work initiatives, highways improvements, tackling crime and disorder in neighbourhoods and continued regeneration of the city.
He said “We are making sure Mancunians have opportunities to improve their lives.
“This budget attempts to make sure relevant attention and resources are put on priorities of Manchester and its residents and this year it's perhaps more important than ever before we get it right.”
While council tax will stay as it is for the next year, police and fire service precepts will add under one per cent to bills – an estimated £10 for those in band D properties, according to officers.
Council tax is forecast to increase by one per cent in both 2011/12 and 2012/13.
The M.E.N detailed last week how town hall bosses plan to cut back spending over the next three years, including placing more children with foster parents to save £2.8m on care home placements and getting sick and elderly residents back on their feet quicker through an 'enablement' programme to save £2.4m in care home costs.
A sickness absence crackdown among social services staff will help save £1.8m in the department and £345,000 will be pulled back through staffing changes at Central Library.
Council leader Sir Richard Leese said the budget was prudent and had been drawn up to meet residents' priorities.
He said: “We're investing in a safer city and neighbourhoods of choice. We're investing in people of all ages, but particularly young people.”
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MPs gravy train, UK (04/03/2010 at 11:49)
Pandora (04/03/2010 at 13:51)
GaelGivet, Didsbury (04/03/2010 at 14:16)
Uncle Buck, Manchester, a United-free city for 100 years. (04/03/2010 at 14:28)
Andanotherthing, Mcr (04/03/2010 at 15:39)
Croc, Manchester (04/03/2010 at 17:29)
Is It Me? (04/03/2010 at 18:59)
J smith (04/03/2010 at 23:32)
J smith (05/03/2010 at 01:22)
Leon Trotsky (05/03/2010 at 07:54)
They should take Oldham councils lead, but being a much larger authority with a bigger pot of taxpayers money to dip into, they deservedly need a more sumptuous setting in which to sit round a table exchange hot-air.
This is Manchester, we do things differently here. (05/03/2010 at 09:01)
Put a stop to the endless sick day, stop wasting money on Irish parades (this is England by the way, not Ireland), stop wasting it on rubbish like B of the Bang, stop stupid traffic calming/congestion causing measures, millions wasted on the congestion charge bid, they are about to spend millions refurbishing the Town Hall and extending to another building (put it on hold), and there are far too many 'admin staff', £100k was wasted on two cctv cars to spy on the populace. The list is endless.
Absolute waste of OUR money. They should concentrate on teh basics rather than social engineering. Millions have been wasted, millions more could be saved but instead 300 people carry the can for the incompetencies at the top. 300 people in in the middle of the worst recession in history and they are putting these people out of a job. I thought Labour was for the working majority? They have wasted so much money, the country is nearly bancrupt and still they spend, spend, spend.
Leon Trotsky (05/03/2010 at 10:40)
The Liarbour are busy bankrupting the country with hardly a pause for breath......and people still want to vote for these morons!!!
Silver Sword (05/03/2010 at 13:26)
NMH (05/03/2010 at 14:11)
In councils you get wasters waiting for pensions, and then rest that carry the weight and have to work that much harder. This is where they aren't efficient. Councils were set up for roads, schools, houses and bins. They now have too much responsibility to do any of the core duties properly.
And "stop stupid traffic calming/congestion causing measures" - This is Manchester (below) . . . well let me tell you this as an insider there are 1000's of requests for traffic calming each year at the council I have worked at in the past. People ask they get. Blame yourselves for the nanny state!
Groucho F (05/03/2010 at 16:56)
So why do so many Manchester ratepayers feel they have to send their kids to private schools to get a decent education? Why is Manchester bottom of the school absence league table? Why did our Council want to build a giant casino in our midst? Why were the roads not gritted recently in the continuing cold spell? Why was the road I live on swept y a road sweeper three times in a single week? Why do our Council employ convicted criminals to empty our bins? Why were our bins not emptied for about a month?....on and on and on...
Once my kids are off to uni (assuming Labour haven't totally buggered that situation up, I'm outta here
It may be 34/35 yrs but it will never be 37yrs., Mossley (05/03/2010 at 17:22)
This is from a morning paper.
Neighbourhood Team Lead MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL
Grade 11 £42,765 to £45,765
Policy & Performance Team Lead MANCHESTER CITY COUNCIL
Salary: Grade 10 £39,855 to £41,616
So much for sacking 300 when they are employing people through another channel and here is me and probably thousands of others believing recruiting was being stopped.
Proper Sentences (08/03/2010 at 09:10)
Leon Trotsky (09/03/2010 at 07:34)
Herein lies the problem with the political framework of this country. The lame, the lazy, the work-shy, the scrounger, the sponger, they will always vote NuLiebour as it is we the taxpayer that funds their idle existence and therefore gives the NuLiebour cretins a captive voteing base.
To vote Liebour is a vote for increasing debt because their simply isn't enough income tax and N.I. contributions to pay for the army of spongers and jobsworths leeching resources from those that do create the wealth.
To vote NuLiebour again would sound the death bell for this country and its fragile economy, but the retards in government don't care as their income is assured by us taxpayers. Unfortunately the Tories will have to position themselves in a similar way to ensure getting enough votes to unseat this undemocratic socialist filth from power. So I don't see things improving anytine soon whoever gains power.
Fact is we need change!, to continue with the socialist left is akin to handing out live bullets to your own firing squad.