'700 jobs to go' at Stoke Council
Up to 700 jobs face the axe from Stoke City Council after it was forced to shed £33m from its budget. Mohammed Pervez, leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said the cuts were “much, much deeper than we had expected”.
The council’s regeneration department could see up to 70 jobs go as it is required to make more than £4m of savings.
Pervez said: “We planned for 25 per cent [budget cuts] following the emergency budget in June but we are now facing nearly 30 per cent (7.1 per cent each year for four years). After the CSR announcement we are still left with a number of uncertainties around the Building Schools for the Future Programme, the Area Based Grant and other funding streams. Despite these significant uncertainties we must proceed in order to ensure we deliver an agreed legal budget by February 2011.
“The responsibility for these reductions falls squarely on the government – these are demands being made on us, and we will have to deal with them in as a measured way as possible.”
The council leader added that he believed the cuts “hit the poorest people in the city”. He said that the council had decided to take the fight to Westminster by writing to the secretary of state twice and joining forces with other similarly affected councils like Blackpool, Hull and Torbay.
