Redundancy offered to council staff to save money

West Northamptonshire Council's main office building is at Angel Square in Northampton

A council facing a multimillion-pound budget shortfall has invited staff to apply for voluntary redundancy.

West Northamptonshire Council also hoped some workers would reduce their hours to save more money.

Its 2,584 staff were being briefed on the situation this week.

The authority said no decisions would be made "without thorough consideration of the impact on services and the community".

West Northamptonshire Council took over the running of most services in half of the county when Northamptonshire County, Daventry, Northampton Borough and South Northamptonshire councils were abolished in 2021.

The County Council had effectively gone bankrupt.

Since then, the two unitary authorities which replaced it have struggled to balance their books.

Council staff are also based at several buildings across the area, including the Abbey Centre in Daventry

West Northamptonshire Council predicted a £72m shortfall by 2026, which would be 8% of its budget.

The Conservative-led authority said like many councils across the country, it was "dealing with increasing demand for statutory services and rising operational costs".

It added that it was "progressing a wide range of initiatives aimed at improving the efficiency of the organisation whilst continuing to reduce costs, including a focus on how teams across the council are currently structured to provide services".

Mike Hallam, the council's cabinet member for corporate services, said: "As part of our ongoing efforts to achieve a balanced budget, we have decided to open a process where colleagues can express an interest in options such as voluntary redundancy, flexible retirement, or reduced working hours.

"This is part of our wider programme, which focuses on improving the internal efficiency of operations while ensuring we continue to deliver essential services to our residents.

“This is very much an exploratory process, and no decisions will be made without thorough consideration of the impact on services and the community."