Black Country and Staffordshire councils spent more than £14 million on staff redundancies last year

For Walsall Council, it rose from 73 redundancies in the year to March 2022, at a cost of £1.96m, to 138 redundancies the following year costing the authority £3.8m.

Staffordshire County Council made 84 staff members redundant in the year to March at a cost of £3.7m. The year before it shed 89 staff, costing the authority more than double at £8.1m.

In the 12 months to March, Dudley Council spent £1.58m to make 90 staff members redundant, compared to 47 redundancies the year before at a cost of £445,000.

Costs also rose for Wolverhampton Council, which spent £1.38m making 40 staff members redundant in the year to March, compared to 63 redundancies the year before at a cost of £1.18m.

Nationally, over £185 million was spent on staff redundancies by councils across England, the lowest annual amount in nine years.

Last year just over £214 million was paid out to departing employees.

Council bosses say that redundancies are a last resort, but sometimes need to be made as authorities face the challenge of balancing their budgets.

Councillor Steve Clark, Dudley Council's cabinet member for finance, legal and human resources, said: “Like all local authorities, we continue to face the challenges of balancing the budget and delivering value for money.

“As the borough’s largest employer, and as an authority that is committed to creating opportunities, redundancies are always a last resort and we always work with our employees to support them when roles are at risk.

“Sometimes we are forced to make difficult decisions in order to meet our financial targets in order to ensure stability for the people we serve.

"Redundancies typically occur as service needs or requirements of the local authority change, or in instance where people can no longer work in the same location as they were previously based.”

Alan White, leader at Staffordshire County Council, said the authority is well run and was determined to manage and invest taxpayers’ money carefully and wisely to deliver results and value for money.

He added: “We do carry out regular reviews of staffing to make sure that we have the right number of people with the right level of skills working across all our services. This number of redundancies is a very small proportion of our total workforce of around 4,000 staff and is in line with other similar sized councils.”

A spokesperson for Wolverhampton Council said: “We have an excellent track record of managing money well, setting a balanced budget for nine years, despite having to make £240 million worth of savings due to reduced government funding since 2011.

“The amount needed to be spent on pay outs has more than halved during the last three years, and the number of redundancies has been cut by more than a third in the last 12 months.

“As always, redundancy is a last resort and one we always try to avoid with redeployment opportunities.”

The Local Government Association said that unlike the civil service, councils have seen their workforce shrink while facing "increasing demand for services", and called for a rethink of Government funding to combat "severe budget pressures".

Councillor Pete Marland, chair of the LGA's resources board, said: "Despite increasing demand for services, local authorities also face challenges in getting the right people into the right roles, such as in children’s services, adult social care and planning.

"Our own workforce survey shows 94 per cent said they were experiencing recruitment and retention difficulties."

He added: "Only long-term, consistent funding from central government will be enough to meet inflationary pressures and the rising costs of the National Living Wage, on top of increasing energy and other costs, if we are to avoid more redundancies and prevent exacerbating an already acute capacity crisis in some areas."