Warwickshire council may cut 1,800 jobs, leader says

Warwickshire County Council has said it may lose almost a quarter of its staff, up to 1,800 jobs, to cope with budget cuts over the next three years.

Conservative council leader Alan Farnell told a meeting on Tuesday his prediction was a "worst case scenario".

He said the exact job cuts would not be known until after the government had released further details about its Spending Review in the next few weeks.

The council said it would try to avoid compulsory redundancies where possible.

Mr Farnell said the council would explore natural wastage and voluntary redundancy as preferred options.

In 2009/2010 the council's total expenditure was £784.4m. Before the Spending Review was announced the council predicted its expenditure for 2010/2011 would be £825.2m.