'Significant’ number of Southampton city council employees requesting redundancy
The authority is looking to make millions of pounds in savings in order to avoid asking the Government for help
Last updated 14th Jul 2023
A ‘significant number’ of Southampton City Council staff have put themselves forward for voluntary redundancy, it has been revealed, after the cost-cutting measure was announced earlier this month (July 2023).
The move is one of several ways the city council is hoping to make the tens-of-millions of pounds of savings it needs to avoid having to ask the Government for help.
Despite the ‘significant’ amount of applications, not everybody who has requested a redundancy will be allowed to actually take it.
Mel Creighton, the director of finance at the council, said during a key scrutiny meeting on Thursday (July 13): “We’ve had a significant number of people apply.
“Not all of which will be suitable to lose the post so the management team at the moment is going through those people who have applied to assess whether it is right and proper for us to release them.”
The offer of voluntary redundancy ends next Friday (July 21).
As previously reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the council must find around £20m in savings this year and is running low on reserves after ‘out of control’ spending was identified.