SOUTHAMPTON CITY Council is preparing to cut more jobs.

As reported in the Daily Echo, the council will today reveal a mini-budget, detailing the scale of the job losses.

Using a model first implemented in Sunderland, the council will continue to pay the staff who lose their jobs for eight months under a redeployment scheme.

The hope is they will be able to find a new job within the council as they become available due to natural wastage such as retirement.

This will prevent the authority having to pay out redundancy packages to affected workers.

Overall, it is hoped the interim budget will save the authority £2.8m.

As revealed in this morning's Daily Echo, the budget will propose the permanent closure of Oaklands swimming pool, as well as introducing new charges such as licensing for multiple occupancy homes.

The ruling Labour group came to power in May and promised to do everything it could to reverse pay cuts imposed by the previous Conservative party and ensure no further job losses.

It is understood that reversing five per cent paycuts would cost the council around £3m.

In total, Southampton City Council needs to make savings of £65m over the next two years to close the budget deficit.