Salisbury Cathedral cuts jobs to save money
- Published
The cathedral is consulting with staff over the planned job cuts
Salisbury Cathedral says it will have to make job cuts because it needs to save £200,000.
Cathedral chapter clerk Mark Elcomb said: "The cathedral has been running a deficit budget for several years - due to funding a major repair programme.
"Job losses are inevitable. Exactly how many and over what time frame, we are still reviewing and consulting."
Jobs cuts in marketing, visitor services and security, the Close Constables, could total about eight.
'Low reserves'
The cathedral is undergoing a major programme of repairs.
Mr Elcomb said the cathedral had tried to balance its deficit using funds from reserves, which were now running low.
He said there were other additional costs such as increased national insurance contributions for staff.
He said: "If we were to continue to work in that way then we could not be financially viable so we have got to cut our cloth to meet the economic present and forecast future.
"We need to make sure we are in a position where we are not spending more than we are getting in income which is heavily reliant on visitors and their generosity cannot be predicted.
"We're going to be hit by the ending of the listed places of worship grant scheme which allows us to recover VAT on our repairs programme - this is worth between £35-40,000 a year.
"Not only do we have to try to save money to balance the books, we have to acknowledge the realities of additional costs next year and who knows what the year after."
The consultation process with staff is due to end in about three weeks.
There are 91 full-time members of staff and 17 part-time - it is thought seven full-time jobs and one part-time job are at risk in the proposed re-organisation plans.