Southampton City Council made almost five times more redundancies in the last financial year compared to the year before. 

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show around 140 people were made redundant by the city council in 2023/24. 

This cost the council £4 million, at an average of £29,400 per redundancy package. 

This was compared to just 30 redundancies in 2022/23 that cost £616,000. 

The number of redundancies is rounded to the nearest 10.

A spokesperson for the city council confirmed the redundancies were to help close an ongoing multi-million pound deficit in its finances.

This required Government support and a newly-announced plan to transform how the council works and cut running costs in the process.

READ MORE: Southampton City Council needs to find £10m to sort finances

A council spokesperson said: "It is council policy, where staff are involved in changes and there are less staff required, to offer voluntary redundancy.

"We also offered a council-wide programme last year as part of the work we did to balance the financial position.

"In 2023/24 the voluntary redundancy exercise saved us £686,000 which will increase to £2.153M in the current financial year.

"The council reviewed the policy in April 2024 and have reduced the redundancy package available, in particular to more senior staff."

READ MORE: Bid to cut £40m at Southampton City Council involves 28 projects

The Local Government Association (LGA) said councils are facing "significant financial pressures" with the number of employees falling over the last decade.

Nationally, councils spent just under £200 million on redundancies in the year to March, up from £183 million in the previous year and the first rise since 2016-17.

Figures also showed a record 380 senior employees were made redundant last year, costing councils £29.7 million, the highest figure since 2018-19.

Six councils have effectively filed for bankruptcy since 2021, a huge increase after just three resorted to this between 2000 and 2018.

But in a speech at the LGA forum, Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said Labour will "end the Dragons' Den approach" in which authorities bid for funding. 

An LGA spokesperson said: "The number of people working in local government has reduced in size over the last decade as councils continue to face significant financial pressures.

"In this context, councils make decisions based on their contractual and legal responsibilities when determining the level of severance or settlement payments made to their employees.

"Councils need adequate funding and longer-term certainty to meet rising costs and demand pressures and avoid more redundancies.

"This will also prevent exacerbating an already acute capacity crisis in some areas, with more than nine in 10 councils experiencing staff recruitment and retention difficulties."