Town halls slash more than 1,000 council jobs

MORE than 1,000 council staff in the capital have been made redundant or face losing their jobs.

The Evening Standard has learned that some 575 employees have been let go in the past six months. At least 700 more posts are to disappear this year.

Councils say cutbacks are to improve efficiency and compensate for money lost in the Icelandic banking crisis. They add they have lost out because of low level government funding, partly due to inaccurate population estimates.

The expected saving from these job losses is expected to be at least £66million by 2011.

A spokesman for London Councils, which represents the 32 boroughs, said: "We have repeatedly warned that the Government's latest funding settlement - which amounted to a real-term cut in funding - would force the capital's local authorities into making some tough decisions."

But bosses at union Unison hit out at the cuts and said council services were more in demand during the credit crisis. A spokeswoman said: "We have been noticing losses and it's madness at a time like this when people need council workers for advice on employment, housing and debt. We have got an ageing population and more people are needed to work in social care."

Newham got rid of a total of 141 staff over one year and planned to save £53million in the next two years.

A spokeswoman for the council said: "There are no plans to cut any major services to meet financial targets."

Ealing has made six redundancies in the past six months but is planning 48 job cuts, which could hit library services the hardest. A total of 26 library staff are expected to be axed from 149, saving £1.21million over the next year. The regeneration and housing department will lose 10 posts to save £890,000, and six jobs will go in children's services.

In Lambeth, 67 employees have been shed in six months - 64 voluntarily and three who were forced to leave. The staff were youth workers, customer service assistants and finance workers.Hammersmith and Fulham has lost 566 posts over two years, not all redundancies, cutting costs by £4million.