Partner Article

600 jobs to go at Gateshead Council

600 Jobs are set to go at Gateshead Council in a bid to save almost £70m over the next three years.

The Local authority, which employs 9,000 staff, is reportedly seeking voluntary redundancies with employees being offered the opportunity to reduce their hours and other flexible working arrangements to generate further savings.

The council has criticised proposed cuts in government grants as has predicted that service cuts would impact the poorest neighbourhoods the most.

Council leader Mick Henry said Mr Henry, said: “Gateshead Council needs to cut at least £25m from its budget in the next financial year and is drawing up possible savings that reduce jobs by about 600.

“We have tried to plan for the changes and a recruitment freeze has already enabled us to delete more than 130 posts without people losing jobs. “However, the scale of these cuts mean that these initiatives alone are not enough to meet the reduction now required.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .