More than 50 workers to lose jobs as Croydon council continues to face financial problems

By Tara O’Connor, Local Democracy Reporter

Croydon council plans to axe more than 50 jobs in a bid to balance the budget.

In the wake of effectively declaring bankruptcy in November 2020, the council continues to face financial difficulties.

It was originally estimated there was a £38 million budget gap for 2022/23 but this has now been reduced to £13 million.

Budget papers going to a cabinet meeting on Monday, December 6 show that in part this will be made through cutting 58 jobs.

It is not yet known which jobs at the authority will be slashed.

It is just the latest in cuts, hundreds of jobs were already cut last year.

It is the first in a series of reports ahead of the final budget being set on February 21, 2022.

The report says that trade unions were told of the proposed redundancies on Friday (November 26) just days after they protested outside the town hall against expected cuts.

It adds: “In order to mitigate workforce impact, managers will delete vacant posts, where possible, and offer voluntary redundancy and redeployment to affected staff supported by the HR team.”

Before the council was forced to issue a Section 114 notice it had reserves of just £10 million which fell to negative £3.9 million in the months leading up to bankruptcy. But using a government loan this has now been bumper up to £27.5 million.

Hamida Ali, the leader of Croydon council, said: “Putting the council on a sustainable financial footing will mean difficult decisions and like all councils we continue to be impacted by Covid-19, economic uncertainty and rising demand for our services after a decade of government cuts.

“There will be challenging decisions to make but we will always seek residents’ views about significant changes that affect them.”