Leeds: Cash-strapped council set to cut 200 more jobs

Leeds City Council says it is facing a budget shortfall for 2021-22 of of £118.8m

Almost 200 more jobs are set to be cut by Leeds City Council as the authority struggles to balance its books during the coronavirus pandemic.

In October, the council revealed 600 jobs faced the axe.

Now the Labour-run authority has been presented with a report saying the estimated cash shortfall it faces for the next two years is £118.8m.

The report outlines potential savings it can make of £17.6m with the additional job cuts.

According to the report, £59.7m of the total shortfall was due to pressures prior to the impact of coronavirus, with another £59.1m resulting from the impact of Covid-19.

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The council, which has a budget of £525.7m for 2020/21, said the reduction in its workforce by 199.4 posts meant the overall loss of 816 full-time posts.

It said it was "doing all it can to avoid compulsory redundancies".

Along with the job cuts, the authority is looking to sell off some of its offices and industrial units and to close three community buildings.

It will cut childcare delivery in one centre and make a £381,000 saving by reducing discretionary services to working age adults.

The Grade II-listed Abbey Mills building in Kirkstall is also to be sold as there is not enough cash to carry out refurbishments.

Analysis, James Vincent, BBC Look North Political Editor

Leeds has been pretty clear about its financial position - it's looking grim.

They've already told us that they might have to declare themselves bankrupt by the end of the year .

Now, the number of jobs they think they'll need to lose is going up. They'd said 600 last month - now they think it's more like 800.

The £118m shortfall is roughly divided into two parts - £59m they thought they'd have to save before Covid-19 - and £59m they now have to find because of it.

They're having to spend more than they are bringing in and they're not the only council in Yorkshire in this position.

It's a lot of jobs - but it's also going to have quite a large effect on the services we use every day across the whole of Yorkshire.

The leader of Leeds City Council, Judith Blake, said local authorities needed additional support from central government during the coronavirus crisis.

Ms Blake said: "The impact of coronavirus, combined with national reductions to local government budgets over the last decade, has been of a scale nobody could have predicted.

"We will make every effort to protect frontline services and we will do everything possible to not make compulsory redundancies.

"However, some incredibly tough decisions now need to be taken because of the impact of the pandemic following a decade of austerity."

Stacey Booth, of the GMB trade union, called on the government to "adequately fund local authorities".

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government said: "We're giving councils unprecedented support during the pandemic to tackle the pressures they have told us they're facing.

"Leeds City Council has received over £72m in non-ring fenced emergency funding. Additionally, their core spending power increased by over £35 million in 2020/21 even before emergency funding was announced."

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