1,300 jobs axed at Wolverhampton Council in five years

New figures revealed how the authority's workforce has been dramatically scaled down in recent years while coping with budget cuts.

Despite making savings through redundancies, council tax has continued to rise, while the bins are now being collected every fortnight in the city.

Since 2014/15, a total of 1,372 jobs have gone at the council, through either voluntary or compulsory redundancies, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act showed.

The council workforce has continued to be stripped every year, though the rate of job cuts has slowed since 715 were culled in 2014/15.

Another 474 went in 2015/16, followed by 202 a year later and 223 in 2017/18 as the authority underwent a huge restructure. So far, 33 have gone during the current financial year. However, there were dire warnings in October that up to another 500 could go.

A great deal of the roles gone have involved children - with 237 from the children and young people department. Some 387 have been axed from adult services.

A total of 275 jobs were lost in schools, but the council has confirmed these were not council employees and were employed directly by the school themselves.

Dozens of jobs have also gone in commercial services, corporate services and regeneration.

Councillor Roger Lawrence, leader of Wolverhampton Council, said: "Councils like Wolverhampton have suffered cuts which are not only damaging, but are also far more severe than other areas in the country such as shire counties which have, relatively speaking, been protected.

Challenge

"We continue to operate services with the resources which are available to us, but this remains the most significant financial challenge the council has ever faced and with future funding for local government – and the national political situation – uncertain, we anticipate having to make additional savings over the next five years.

"We have been as open and upfront about this as possible and will continue to face these challenges with the same focus and determination to keep delivering what is right for the people who live, work and visit our city.

"This has included attracting billions of pounds of investment to Wolverhampton, bringing new jobs and opportunities. We will not allow anything to derail those priorities or our ambitions for our city."

In March, it was revealed redundancy payouts had cost the city council £22 million since 2011. Council leaders said in October they needed to save another £22.3m and part of that could come through axing hundreds more jobs.

Bosses have said the authority is facing the biggest financial crisis in its history and is proposing to put council tax up by 4.99 per cent after switching bin collections to once a fortnight.

The city's opposition Conservative leader Wendy Thompson said: "The issue in Wolverhampton is there is a great deal of spending of money in places residents aren't entirely happy about.

"We have seen £25m spent on the Civic Centre which the Conservative group didn't want and they have made a complete hash of the Civic Hall project.

"There is a real danger of having a very demoralised workforce and that doesn't do anybody any good."

A spokesman for Wolverhampton Council said: "In common with other local authorities across the country, Wolverhampton Council is continuing to face unprecedented cuts from Central Government which are having an enormous impact on services and jobs in the city.

"Since 2010, the council has had to shrink its budget by more than £220m at a time when demand for services, particularly social care, is rising. At the same time, it has been necessary to reduce the workforce by around a third."