Liverpool council leader Joe Anderson warns of job cuts

Jobs will have to go at Liverpool City Council if it is to cut £141m from its budget, its leader has said.

Joe Anderson, leader of the Labour-run authority, has asked the government for "fairness" in the council's grant settlement.

He said compulsory redundancies were likely in the future as Liverpool faced greater cuts than Manchester, which announced 2,000 job losses on Thursday.

The city council is setting its budget on 23 February.

It expects to hear the level of its grant settlement on 10 February.

Mr Anderson and fellow party leaders Warren Bradley (Liberal Democrat) and Sarah Jennings (Green) have asked the government to consider phasing the reduction to minimise the impact on jobs and front line services.

They took part in a conference call with Local Government Minister Andrew Stunnell to outline their concerns on Thursday.

When combined with additional spending pressures, Liverpool said it had to find £141m of savings between now and 2013 - £91 million of it in 2011-12.

The cuts have been imposed by the government in an attempt to cut the national budget deficit.

"Manchester are the fifth-worst authority in terms of the cuts, we're the number one," Mr Anderson said.

"Of course Manchester have a little bit more income than us in terms of the airport, so proportionately we are definitely worse off.

"We have refused to put numbers on compulsory redundancies simply because we are trying everything we can because we want to try and protect every job we can, and also to protect the services that we provide.

"But we do recognise that eventually there will be compulsory redundancies in the city."

Work is already under way to reorganise the council, including cutting the number of business units from 74 to 27, cutting 48 senior posts and axing bonuses.

The Department for Communities and Local Government said Mr Stunnell was one of a number of ministers meeting councils this week.