By Mark Smulian | 25 June 2013
Local government staff cuts are not even halfway done yet, with almost half a million workers set to be lost over the next four years, a survey has found.
Insurer Zurich Municipal said local government had shed more than 416,000 staff since 2010, equivalent to a 14.3% fall, taking the total to a record low not seen since September 2006.
But with further spending cuts to come it predicted a further 16.1% fall by the end of 2017/18, equivalent to 484,000 staff.
Andrew Jepp, Zurich Municipal’s director of public services, said: ‘While it was inevitable that local government would become leaner, the pressure to deliver quality services with fewer resources does not become any easier for local authorities across the country.’
With the threat of further staffing reductions a likely result of tomorrow’s spending round for 2015/16, Jepp warned that local government would still need ‘high-quality, skilled talent over the long term and growing supply chains will need to be carefully managed’.
According to Zurich Municipal, councils’ use of temporary labour has increased, with a 4% rise since the end of 2010 to 9,166 full-time equivalent people. It predicted a further 2-3% rise during this year.
Staff had also been shed because of services being shared, a step now so commonplace that 95% of councils were involved, with at least 337 authorities sharing some 325 services.
The total value of outsourced council contracts increased in 2012 by 140% to £12.9bn, Zurich Municipal said.
