Hampshire County Council approves finance plan to axe 450 jobs

More than 450 people could lose their jobs at Hampshire County Council as £98m of cuts are approved.

Councillors voted in favour of the Conservative-led authority's proposals to make savings by 2018/19.

Leader Roy Perry said he estimated there would be the equivalent of 454 full-time contracts lost.

Under the proposals 163 jobs could be lost from the adult social care department, which would be achieved through changing its "operating model".

Children's services could lose the equivalent of 58 jobs and the culture, community and business services department are also at risk.

Street lights could also be dimmed further as a cost-cutting measure.

The budget for 2016/2017 will not be drawn up until later in the year after the government's Autumn statement.

'Prudently using reserves'

In the report, Hampshire County Council said the introduction of the Living Wage could increase the cost of the workforce by £5m.

The council said "a further £102.5m was removed from budgets in this year, taking the total to £242m since the grant reductions began".

It said reserves were starting to decline, from £481m in 2014/12 to £462m this year.

Mr Perry said: "Since 2008 the county council's strategy for managing reductions in central government funding has focused on running the council more efficiently by reducing the cost of back office functions, using savings to help protect front line services and prudently using some reserves to manage the costs of change."