West Northamptonshire Council spent £1.8 million making staff redundant last year, as figure increases from year before

Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government figures show around 80 people were made redundant by WNC in 2023-24.

This cost the council £1.8 million, at an average of £23,700 per redundancy package – up from £1.2 million from the year before.

Councillor Matt Golby, deputy leader of WNC, said: “As a council which has merged four predecessor councils together, we have undertaken restructuring exercises across our departments, in order to bring the efficiencies and savings that the unitary process promised the tax-payer it would make. This, inevitably, has resulted in some redundancies.

“However, making people redundant is never an easy thing to do, and anyone affected has the right to expect that, where appropriate, they will be compensated in line with their contractual rights to a redundancy payment, and the statutory obligations that all employers have under employment law.

“Any potential costs associated with proposed redundancies are considered against the ongoing savings that can be made, as part of the wider business case, whenever the council considers proposals to make changes to staffing.

“It should be remembered that since West Northants was formed, £90 million of savings have been delivered. Delivering services more efficiently, which includes the requirement to make redundancies in some areas, has formed a part of the strategic approach to deliver a balanced budget each year without reducing the level of service provided to residents and businesses in the area.”

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

A Local Government Association 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.”

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