According to a new survey for the BBC, 49 local authorities (employing around 256,000 people) town halls are expecting to have to reduce staff levels by around ten per cent.
Eight of the councils polled - Leeds, Sheffield, Stoke-on-Trent, Kirklees and City of Bradford - anticipated having to cut at least 1,000 posts each over the next five years. Some 70 per cent of the councils polled predicted budgets would be cut by between five and 20 per cent. The services thought to be most at risk were roads, the arts, libraries and leisure.
Speaking on BBC Radio Berkshire, prime minister Gordon Brown said he did not accept the figures. "What I do believe is that local authorities will be in a position to make the efficiency savings that central government will make," he commented, adding that frontline services would not be severely affected.
However, Tony Travers of the London School of Economics said on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that he would be "amazed" if the prediction of 25,000 job cuts did not prove to be a conservative forecast. "I think it'll be much higher. It could be as high as 100,000," he said.
A previous poll by the Independent found that councils expected to have to cut 20,000 due to anticipated spending cuts in 2011.
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