MORE than £9m of savings at Southampton City Council have been agreed by cash-strapped civic chiefs.

The £9.3m proposals are the first set of budget savings for 2016/17 but have been agreed now so that some savings can take effect in the current financial year.

Overall, Labour council leaders fear they may have to find as much as £40m of savings for the next financial year and £90m by 2019, it has been revealed.

Of the £9.3m savings already put forward and approved by the city council’s cabinet, £5.4m of that will come from using capital money, eg funds raised by selling lands or other assets, to pay off debt.

This means they will not have to pay the annual minimum revenue payment to get rid of debts and allow repayments to be made with lower interest rates.

The council also hopes another £2.2m would come from reviewing methods of borrowing.

Some services will face cuts, such as property where one full-time worker could be made redundant, and cutting two jobs in the arts and heritage visitor services team.

Other proposals include carrying out fewer condition surveys on council buildings and bridges, as well as cutting back on £200,000 a year in the budget for repairs and maintenance and reducing the amount of waste from across the city sent to landfill sites.