CIVIC chiefs in Southampton are preparing to axe more council jobs as bosses brace themselves for £42.3million of fresh budget cuts.

Southampton City Council Labour leader Simon Letts announced the looming cuts as part of a three-year plan to fill a black hole in the “cash strapped” authority’s finances.

But opposition politicians have condemned the proposals – which also include a council tax hike, fortnightly bin collections and moving more council services online – as “opaque”.

They are challenging the council to reveal the true number of job losses and more details of where savings will come from. They are also urging the authority to fight for a better deal from the Government.

But Cllr Letts insists that the job losses will be less severe than in previous years and says he has already demanded a better deal from Westminster.

The cuts were revealed as part of a three-year financial strategy where the council plans to slash £42.3million in costs by 2019/20 – with the lion’s share of £24.6m in cuts being forced through over 2017/18.

It comes after the authority has already slashed £92.4m from its budget in the past five years – the equivalent of around £1,300 per household.

The new proposals include:

  • Increasing council tax by 3.99 per cent – including a two per cent rise in the Adult Social Care precept – which along with the increase in the volume of business rates in the city will save £6m.
  • Restructuring the way adult social care teams work to save up to £3.6m a year.
  • Saving £800,000 a year by introducing fortnightly bin collections.
  • Slashing £640,000 a year by moving services online.
  • Ongoing savings of £6m a year after renegotiating a deal with Capita for council services.

But the council says it aims to save £7million over the period by reducing the placement costs of looked after children – including transferring from Independent Fostering Agencies (IFAs) to in-house provision. The authority has factored into this extra costs from having to look after 10 children who are unaccompanied asylum seekers.

There is also a move for the council to become more commercial-based by borrowing money to buy property in other counties.

Mr Letts said job losses would be made up of voluntary redundancies while frontline staff in street cleaning and grounds maintenance would be protected adding: “None of them will be leaving against their will and there will be less job losses than in previous years.”

He admitted the council is “cash strapped” but added: “If we can set a budget now it gives us breathing space so that we can get on and do our job of running the city.”

“We have to build ourselves out of austerity. We have to build what revenue we can to support council services that we provide and support a successful business community to support households in the city.”

But Conservative opposition leader Councillor Jeremy Moulton branded the plans “opaque” and said: “These seem to be guesses to what savings will be.

"These are just ideas rather than concrete plans. If there are going to be job losses people need to know.”

He condemned the council for the move to digital services which he says is “forcing” people onto the internet and that fortnightly bin collections are “inappropriate” in urban areas.

He added: “We would have much more open practice for options for services and wouldn’t be afraid of options for private companies.”

Cllr Keith Morrell, leader of the Putting People First Group, said: “It seems that the council has given up the ghost on trying to get more money from the Government.

“We think that the council should be focussing on winning adequate funding from the Government to maintain services and jobs.”

But Cllr Letts said the job losses were yet to be disclosed because previous year’s estimates had been incorrect and now staff were being consulted first.

He said he has already written to Tory Chancellor Philip Hammond for more funds and added: “This is a worst case scenario and if more money comes forward we can change our plans.”

The plans will be debated at next week’s cabinet and full council meetings and will be put to public consultation before a final decision is made in February.