SOUTHEND Council let dozens of employees go this year, costing more than £1 million in redundancy payments.

The Association of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers said job losses will continue across England because the Government does not see local councils as a priority.

Figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government show 44 exit packages, totalling £1.3 million were awarded by Southend Council in 2020-21.

There were 26 staff laid off the previous year, at a cost of £1.1 million.

At Basildon Council, nine employees were let go totalling £213,500 in exit packages, compared to 14 laid off the previous year with £410,100.

The total value of exit packages nationally more than halved from £544 million in 2016-17 to £252 million last year in real terms.

Ian Miller, honorary secretary of the association, said: “The higher spend between 2014 and 2017 reflects that councils were making very significant reductions in their workforce at that time as a result of the Government’s austerity programme which has cut funding for local government since 2010.

“Job cuts will continue because local government has not been a priority for this or previous governments.”

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He added that councils aim to protect frontline services, and that workforce reductions slowed in 2020-21 because the focus was on responding to the pandemic.

The average cost of all exit packages in Southend last year was £29,240 – down from £40,910 in 2019-20.

Paul Collins, councillor responsible for corporate services and performance delivery at Southend Council, said they had faced financial pressures since Covid.

He said: “Regrettably, this means that savings have to be found and some of these, inevitably, will be in staffing budgets, as we redesign and streamline services.

“Whilst this does include some redundancies, it is important to note that the figure of 44 also includes those that have chosen to retire.

“We work hard with unions and with affected staff to ensure that the effects of such reductions are mitigated as far as possible through the use of redeployment and voluntary severance packages.”

Basildon Council did not want to comment.