Southampton City Council plans to implement more job cuts

The authority is set to lose five per cent of its workforce over the next two years in a move that will hit several departments, including adult social care.

Vacant posts are being deleted to help the council achieve its target, but up to 99 people could face redundancy.

A 2024/25 budget shortfall of £39.3m was forecast at the start of the year. The figure has been reduced by £13.2m, which means the authority will need to borrow less money. However, senior councillors say more cuts are needed.

Lorna Fielker, leader of the Labour-run Southampton City Council (Image: Supplied)

A report to the next cabinet meeting on October 29 says: "Given the scale of the financial challenge and level of savings required, the council will need to be a smaller organisation.

"This means a reduction in posts of between 136 and 168 to deliver £7.2m of establishment savings.

"This does not equate to compulsory job losses as the figures includes both occupied and unoccupied posts and other means of headcount reduction will also be deployed including not filling the unoccupied posts, voluntary severance, and natural workforce attrition.

"The range of potential posts quoted will be narrowed for the next update as we build greater certainty over establishment savings and impacts."

READ MORE: Southampton City Council to spend £9m to save money

Civic chiefs are hoping to cushion the impact of job cuts on council services by copying the efficiency savings and productivity improvements achieved by other local authorities.

Southampton City Council is planning to male more savings by shedding up to 168 posts (Image: Colin Lee)

Council leader Lorna Fielker said: "We will be working in different ways and taking advantage of methods that have been proven to work elsewhere."

In July the authority set itself a target of achieving £42.65m of "transformation savings".

Officers have identified £50m of potential savings over the next five years and the council says it is confident of delivering a figure of £36.35m.

But despite the progress made so far, it is facing a basic budget gap of £18.2m for 2025/26.

Cllr Fielker said: "We are making significant progress on planning and delivering truly transformational change across the council, but we also recognise that the work needs to continue at pace and difficult decisions still need to be made.

"The cabinet and officers are determined to deliver the savings we need to make, whilst at the same time putting in place ambitious but robust economic growth strategies that will benefit the residents and businesses of Southampton."