A total of 1,095 jobs are set to be lost over the next twelve months, Birmingham City Council has announced.

Over the last nine years, over 12,000 jobs have been lost from the council. According to Birmingham Post, by 2020 this figure will be over 13,000.

Councillors were due to debate Birmingham’s financial plan for 2019-2023. They have revealed that they ‘anticipate a further reduction of up to 1,579 full-time equivalent staff by 2022-23, with up to 1,095 full-time equivalents anticipated to exit the organisation in 2019-20.’

Council leader Ian Ward, in his foreword to the financial plan, said, ‘It is clear that after almost a decade of austerity-driven cuts, this continues to be the most challenging period in Birmingham City Council’s history.’

Ward also commented on the funding for ‘vital services’, which has been cut by more than £690m since 2010. With the demand for such services growing, and therefore ‘tougher budget decisions’, Ward wants to ‘pay tribute’ to council staff ‘who continue to provide a vital safety net for the most vulnerable people across this city.’

In future, Ward says that the council ‘must now find further savings of £85 million over the next four years, including £46 million for 2019/20, taking the total annual savings over this 12-year period to £775 million.’

Council staff affected by tightening budgets includes Angela Probert, Chief Operating Officer for strategic services. Probert’s role involved managing human resources, policy, procurement, information communication technology, communications and customer services.

After the council announced the highly paid post of Probert, this has been ‘deleted’ as part of the cuts.

Birmingham City Council are expected to fund roughly £12m of redundancy payouts, using capital receipts, over the coming year.

A spokesperson from the council told Redbrick: ‘The budget that has now been agreed by cabinet and full council.’