The cost to tax-payers of equal pay claims by Walsall Council staff could hit £50 million, it was revealed today.

The authority is planning to borrow £48.4 million to cover the extra money it will have to shell out in salaries of thousands of workers.

Today council chiefs insisted the sum was based on a worst-case scenario.

But with negotiations in full swing over the major pay review – known as single status – council-tax payers were today warned they would eventually have to foot the bill for any money borrowed.

The shake-up, which has already been carried out at other West Midlands councils, is designed to ensure equal pay for workers of similar skill levels and prevent the hundreds of salary disputes that have plagued councils for years.

Council leader Mike Bird has said the current proposal would see 29 per cent of just under 8,000 council staff having salaries cut, with everyone else set to gain financially or keep the same wages.

Councillor Chris Towe, Walsall Council’s cabinet member for finance, said the authority was required to earmark almost £50m, but that the actual final figure was subject to union talks.

“The Government has asked us to enter a future notional sum in our statement of accounts,” he said.

But Councillor Ian Robertson, a member of the council’s audit committee, said he was worried about the implications of any long-term borrowing. “In the long-term, an amount like this is going to put the council in hock for the foreseeable future.”

Yesterday the Express &Star revealed council workers are set to lose three Bank Holidays under the pay review.