Union boss tells Shropshire Council to 'find another way' to cut costs with hundreds of jobs at risk

Around 300 full-time jobs could be under threat of redundancy after Shirehall bosses revealed the council needed to make a further £62 million in budget savings in the coming financial year, on top of reductions of around £41m found in 2023/24.

Around 150 staff attended an emergency meeting organised by public sector workers union Unison on Wednesday, with General Secretary Christina McAnea telling staff they would do “everything they could” to fight job losses.

“I’m here to support Unison members who work for the council and to say to them ‘they’ve got our full backing’,” she said.

“This is devastating for the people of this community in so many ways and obviously devastating for the staff, and I’m here to reassure the staff and say we’ll be there to fight it, we’ll be there to back them and we’ll be doing everything we can to stop this.

“We have a central government that doesn’t care about local communities and now we also see local councils across the country on the verge of bankruptcy – I’ve never known local government to be in such dire straits.

“We’re prepared to work with [Shropshire Council] to find solutions to some of these problems and one of the things we’ll be saying to them is ‘look at where you’re investing your money’, put money into actually improving services in Shropshire rather than handing it over to companies and organisations that are just there to make profits.”

Ms McAnea was in Shrewsbury to hear the concerns of staff after local union officials described the proposed staffing cuts, which will be debated by the council this week, as “drastic”. Around 300 full-time equivalent jobs are at risk under the proposals, but the union believes the number of part-time workers at the organisation may mean the figure of workers affected is closer to 500.

Shropshire Council says a rising tide of demand and spiralling service costs have left it facing “very difficult decisions” in order to balance its books.

In January the UK Government announced additional funding of £600 million for councils for financial year 2024/25. The Local Government Association (LGA) estimates the funding gap faced by all local authorities across 2023/24 and 2024/25 to be around £4 billion.

Six local authorities have declared effective bankruptcy since 2021, with four in five local authorities saying they need to make cuts to services this year, according to a survey by the LGA.

“The union recognises the gravity of the situation affecting the council and will do all it can to support staff through these difficult times. But service cuts of this magnitude will hit local people hard too. There has to be another way,” said Unison’s Shropshire branch secretary Ash Silverstone.

“Shropshire Council staff care desperately about the services they provide. They deserve recognition and appreciation, not cuts and uncertainty. We are asking the public to stand with us and send a clear message to the council, local MPs and the government that Shropshire deserves better.”

A full meeting of Shropshire Council was due to discuss next year’s budget, alongside its five-year financial strategy, today.