Job cuts bill to total £1.85m

The total bill for making 30 workers redundant at Wyre Forest District Council will reach £1.85 million, it emerged today.

An Audit Commission report presented to the council's audit committee reveals the seven-figure bill for jobs cuts at the authority. The cutbacks were made as the authority struggled to balance the books.

Council leader Councillor John Campion would not confirm today how many of the 30 staff had given up their roles voluntarily.

However he said the "vast majority" of settlements were "agreeable".

In the report presented to councillors last night district auditor Liz Cave states she has been "in discussion with officers about the accounting treatment of £1.85m of redundancy costs".

Councillor Campion said: "We went through a shrinking exercise and 30 people lost their jobs earlier in the year.

"It was an across the authority exercise."

He claimed the council's finances would not be badly hit in the short-term as the majority of the £1.85m would be found from capital reserves.

And he denied the £9m the council had placed in collapsed Icelandic banks was to blame for the job losses.

The authority has already recouped some of the cash and is hopeful of recovering the entire amount invested.

"The main issue for us and the reason we had to make these cuts was interest rates," Councillor Campion said.

"The rate we were getting on investments collapsed from between six and seven per cent to between two and three."

Asked whether the cuts would affect frontline services Councillor Campion said: "Absolutely not."

"We have worked very hard to ensure services for taxpayers will not suffer."

More than £1m of £5m investment feared lost when an Icelandic bank Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander collapsed has already been returned to Wyre Forest District Council.