No council staff made redundant at Bassetlaw Council last year

The Local Government Association said, unlike the civil service, councils have seen their workforce shrink while facing “increasing demand for services”, and called for a rethink of Government funding to combat "severe budget pressures”.

No redundancies were made by Bassetlaw in the year before, although It spent £142,000 in 2020.

Nottinghamshire Council spent £131,000 to make 10 staff members redundant in the year to March. The council made a total of 45 redundancies the year before, at a cost of £1,259,000. It spent £2,883,000 less than in the year to 2020, when its bill for redundancies was £3,014,000.

Nationally, more than £185m was spent on staff redundancies by councils across England in the year to March, the lowest amount in nine years. Last year, just more than £214m was paid out to departing employees.

The number of staff taking redundancy also hit the lowest point since 2014, with more than 7,800 exit packages agreed, at an average cost of £23,000, up from £22,000 last year.

Coun Pete Marland, LGA resources board chairman, said: “Only long-term, consistent funding from central government will be enough to meet inflationary pressures and the rising costs of the National Living Wage, on top of increasing energy and other costs, if we are to avoid more redundancies.”

The figures also show 325 senior employees nationally were made redundant last year, up 70 on the year ending 2022. Together they received £28m, an average of £85,000 each.

Ian Miller, Association of Local Authority Chief Executives honorary secretary, said payouts to senior council staff were significantly lower than those to top civil servants.

He said: “Council funding has not kept pace with inflation and demand. The figures demonstrate how senior staff continue to lose their jobs because of the need for savings.

“The cost of the average exit package for senior staff has fallen significantly in absolute and real terms since 2015.

“The cost of the average exit package for senior local government staff pales into insignificance compared with the £335,000 paid to Sir Tom Scholar when he was sacked as Treasury Secretary and the £122,000 he received as ‘annual leave adjustments and compensation in lieu of notice’.”