Leeds City Council has announced plans to cut about 650 jobs over the next year.
Smaller government grants and the economic downturn have caused a drop in revenue and prompted the decision, the council said.
However, the local authorityplans to create 200 new posts, giving a net loss of about 450 positions from its 33,000-strong workforce.
The council said it also planned “to improve work attendance“. A review of working structures aims to “make efficiencies and reduce unnecessary administrative and management roles“, a statement said.
Jobs would be lost through natural wastage, early retirement, redeployment and posts not being replaced if they are judged to be no longer necessary. A spokesman said the council did not anticipate any compulsory redundancies.
Councillor Richard Brett, executive board member with responsibility for resources, said: “We are having to make some incredibly difficult decisions and the sad fact of the matter is that we are having to face up to the prospect of reducing our staff numbers.
“We have done everything we can to protect our front-line services and to minimise the impact of the losses on existing staff.”
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Services, such as care of vulnerable adults and children and refuse collection, would not be affected, the council said.
In 2006the local government single-status agreement lead to Leeds City Council facing a mulit-million pound bill for equal pay claims.
