Somerset Council: 200 staff accepted for voluntary redundancy

More than 5,200 people currently work for Somerset Council

More than 200 members of staff at Somerset Council have been accepted for voluntary redundancy.

It is the first round of job cuts as the authority looks to save £40m from its annual pay bill.

It said 372 people applied for voluntary redundancy earlier this year and 201 have now been accepted.

Of those, 49 have to be signed off by councillors next week as their redundancy packages, including pensions, are worth more than £100,000.

Those include the council's current chief finance officer and the director of public health.

Those posts hold responsibilities the council is legally required to have, but, the authority said these will be subsumed into different roles in the council's restructure.

Council leader Bill Revans said the council transformation scheme will make it more sustainable

This round of 201 voluntary redundancies will save £8.2m per year.

The total cost of this round will be £12.8m which will come from the council's capital funds after it was given special permission by the government.

The council said that in all cases, staff will receive only the amounts they are contractually entitled to receive.

The authority is looking to cut its workforce of more than 5,200 people, by around a quarter.

Further rounds of job cuts are expected to include compulsory redundancies as the council carries out a major restructure over the course of this financial year.

The authority said it is facing a "financial emergency" and needs to cut costs

Liberal Democrat leader of Somerset Council, Bill Revans, said: "We had to make many difficult and heart-breaking decisions to set our budget this year, and that included plans for a top-to-bottom restructure of our council.

"We have always been clear about our position and it is essential that we make the tough choices to ensure our council is financially viable.

"This is the first step and we know there will be further changes and reductions in staff numbers coming through over the next 12 months."

It is thought about 1,000 people could lose their jobs at the council before the end of the current financial year, in March 2025.