Up to 3,000 more soldiers could lose jobs
Thousands of soldiers could lose their jobs in a new wave of redundancies set to embarrass the Prime Minister, it was reported today.
An announcement is expected to be made next January, with the final number of those losing their jobs confirmed in May, according to reports, which say the figure could be nearly 3,000.
Under plans set out in 2010, the size of the Army will be cut by 20,000 to 82,000 by 2020.
The shake-up will see the Headquarters 143 (West Midlands) Brigade, currently based at Shrewsbury's Copthorne Barracks, move to Donnington with Headquarters 11 Signal Brigade in 2015.
About 80 military and civilian jobs will be transferred to Telford under the move, which will also see part of Copthorne Barracks sold-off.
But the town's Territorial Army unit, The E (Rifles) Company, will remain at the base for another three years.
An Army source said that David Cameron was keen to avoid the bad publicity that would accompany the latest announcement of more job losses.
Leaked Armed forces documents reveal that the Army is concerned that the Government could intervene to prevent further job losses, with Downing Street preferring to see troop numbers falling through people retiring or leaving of their own accord – while military chiefs want to be able to choose themselves how many redundancies to make.
The armed forces redundancy steering group has said the latest round of cuts will see between 2,500 and 2,900 soldiers losing their jobs, with a further 150 RAF staff and 17 medical and dental personnel from the Navy being made redundant, according to sources.
Reports of the latest cuts comes after it was announced in June that the size of the Territorial Army will increase from 19,000 to 30,000 by 2018.
