Town hall asks for redundancy volunteers as it faces £36m hole in budget

A TOWN hall has asked staff to consider voluntary redundancy to help plug a predicted £36m hole in the budget.

- CHARLOTTE HALL

The move is in response to Oldham council's spending, which has 'increased massively' this year due to pressures in adult and children's social care and temporary accommodation.

The council is predicting a £25m overspend this year - on top of an existing £11m budget gap from last year.

The £25m figure is based on 'projections' which take the current rate of spending and multiplies over the course of the year. A council spokesperson noted that the council is already working on reducing spending, so it hopes to reduce this figure.

Council boss Arooj Shah told the M.E.N: "We're hopeful for a new settlement but we've got to be realistic.

We've got a job to do. We're going to have to go out this week and have conversations with our staff and speak to people who might want to go through the voluntary redundancy scheme or who might want to take a career break.

We're looking at all options and speaking to unions in a collaborative way.

"Our focus is on protecting the services that matter and we will be considering our ability to continue doing that when making decisions about voluntary redundancies."