Since the start of the year, Hampshire County Council has announced that 1,200 jobs are to go. Norfolk County Council is to shed 1,000 jobs and Manchester City Council 2,000. Portsmouth City Council has said it will cut its workforce by 400.
Today, we have reports that Liverpool City Council is to slash around 1,500 jobs from its payroll over the next two years as it seeks to make £141 million of savings between now and 2013, with £91 million in cost-cutting required in 2011-12.
Interestingly, the news comes in the same week that Liverpool opened what is being dubbed as an “embassy” in London to help woo investors.
With Liverpool identified by independent research group Centre for Cities as one of the UK cities likely to be hardest hit by public sector cuts – in 2008, around a third of jobs there were in the public sector – it’s a bold step designed to put Liverpool firmly in the shop window.
As Liverpool City Council leader Cllr Joe Anderson says: "Private sector investment is going to be vital to repair the damage caused by the cuts imposed on us.”
Sited, rather appropriately, close to Liverpool Street, the embassy is a joint scheme by the council, public sector groups and 30 Liverpool businesses and is funded by the businesses.
Initially it will be open for three months, but if the success of the Liverpool pavilion at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai is anything to go by – it attracted 770,000 visitors – it may well be extended.
Those Liverpool council job cuts are a real blow to the local economy. But Liverpool is clearly fighting back and that can only be admired. Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned elsewhere in the UK.
For more information, please visit www.harris-lipman.co.uk
[ add comment ] ( 3 views ) | permalink |
( 2.9 / 241 )
Calendar
