jueves, 13 de enero de 2011

Council Blames Cuts For Axing 2000 Jobs - Sky News

5:57pm UK, Thursday January 13, 2011

Miranda Richardson, Sky News Online

Manchester City Council has blamed the Government for forcing it to cull 2,000 jobs, after it was "badly hit" by coalition cuts.

Manchester Town Hall, January 2011

No one can guarantee frontline services will not be cut after the cull

Sir Richard Leese, leader of the Labour-controlled council, said Manchester had received one of the worse financial settlements from central Government.

"We now have to find £110m in savings next year - £60m more than expected - because of front-loading and the re-distribution of money from Manchester to more affluent areas," he said.

"The accelerated cuts mean we can no longer achieve the staffing reductions we have been forced into through natural turnover which is why we are proposing a time-limited offer of voluntary severance and voluntary early retirement."

The Unite union said it would ask its members if they wanted to strike over the cuts, while Unison laid the blame for the "tragic loss" of 2,000 jobs at the door of the Government.

Sir Richard Leese

Council leader Sir Richard Leese

Labour said frontline services would be hit. Shadow local government secretary Caroline Flint said: "These cuts are the Tory Government's cuts - and communities up and down the country are paying the price."

But local government minister Andrew Stunnell said residents in Manchester received five times as much Government money through their council, than other authorities in the south of England.

He told Sky News: "I have made it clear that any authority which, like them, is in the top 10 for authorities with money in the bank, needs to be looking at using its balances and reserves.

"Their chief executive, who is paid more than the Prime Minister for doing a much smaller job, needs to look at the way his top management is run and organised.

Manchester has a chief executive on a pay packet of nearly £100,000 more than the Prime Minister, who won't lead from the front and take a pay cut.

Local government minister Grant Shapps

"We are giving to every resident in Manchester, through the council, five times as much money as we are giving to the richer authorities in the south of England.

"It is now up to Manchester to use its resources effectively and manage itself properly in order to protect frontline services."

Housing minister Grant Shapps accused Labour of "hypocrisy" on this issue and added: "We have been quite clear that if councils cut chief executive pay, join back office services, join forces to procure and cut out the crazy non jobs, they can protect frontline services.

"Yet Manchester has a chief executive on a pay packet of nearly £100,000 more than the Prime Minister, who won't lead from the front and take a pay cut, and a Twitter tsar on nearly £40,000.

"It's equally disappointing that the council has so far failed to put all expenditure over £500 online so it can be exposed to full public scrutiny."

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