Northumberland Council Redundancy call amid £17m budget overspend

Staff at Northumberland County Council have been informed of a voluntary redundancy scheme

Northumberland County Council workers are being offered voluntary redundancy to try to deal with a multimillion-pound budget overspend.

An email to staff from interim chief executive Rick O'Farrell, seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, reveals a projected overspend of £17m.

The authority said it could not use financial reserves to patch it so was reintroducing voluntary redundancies to save money.

It blamed the cost of living crisis.

In the email, Mr O'Farrell said "these are difficult times for all of us" and those factors were "having a major impact on the council's budget".

He added: "We can't simply draw down from reserves so we need all of you to work with us to feed in ideas for how we can save money.

"The council has agreed to reintroduce the voluntary redundancy scheme for a limited period to help with future organisational planning."

The redundancy offers have been opened to all of the council's more than 10,000 staff.

'Upset or hurt staff'

Earlier this year, council leader Glen Sanderson said he was looking to save £1m from the council's wage bill.

At the time, Mr Sanderson said he would not "ask anybody to leave involuntarily" because he did not want to "upset or hurt the staff who have been so supportive".

Northumberland Conservatives, the council's largest party, blamed the issues behind the cost of living crisis for the financial difficulties.

The party said it would look at ways to deal with and "mitigate" any financial pressures.

A spokesman for the party said: "Northumberland County Council is affected by the same issues that are facing most people, authorities and businesses - including the cost of fuel and general high inflation rates."