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Councils "Thousands of jobs at risk' in shake-up
The Guardian
|March 21, 2025
Thousands of English council jobs are at risk in a shake-up of local government, the country's biggest trade union has warned.
Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, sounded the alarm as councils submit their final proposals for mergers and reorganisation by the end of this week.
She warned the changes "cannot be used as a convenient cover for job cuts" and that it would be a "travesty if crucial public services are shut down, outsourced or sold off".
More than 10,000 public sector jobs are already at risk in the civil service, and the overhaul of NHS England could lead to about 9,500 job losses. With a worsening economic outlook and the Treasury looking for additional money, unions fear that councils will be targeted for further cuts even after years of austerity.
This story is from the March 21, 2025 edition of The Guardian.
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