Hertfordshire county councillors give go-ahead for job losses to save £16m

Proposals to slash jobs and save Hertfordshire County Council £16m a year have been formally backed by the authority’s elected members.

Around 400 roles are now expected to be axed by the end of the year, with the equivalent of 242 full-time posts set to be made redundant.

There also are plans to create 99 new roles, as part of a redesign of council services. The net position is a reduction of 143 posts – equivalent to 1.6% of the council’s 9,000 workforce.

In addition to the redundancies, the losses include the removal of 150 “vacant” posts.

The job losses have been identified as part of the council’s “organisational resourcing programme”.

On Monday (July 29) the proposals – and the required employment processes – were backed by a meeting of the council’s employment committee. Formal consultation with staff facing redundancy is expected to begin in August.

Presenting the proposals to the committee, executive director of adult care services Chris Badger pointed to the “significant financial pressures” facing the council.

“We do recognise how unsettling organisational change such as this can be for colleagues,” he told councillors.

“The council’s workforce is our greatest single asset. We are rightly proud of the workforce we have in Hertfordshire, who work every day tirelessly to deliver excellent services for our communities.

“So while it is imperative that the council is within its financial means, it’s also [imperative] that the change is managed as well as possible.”

In 2024-25, he said, the council had increased spending by £98m – but still had to make £46m of efficiency savings and use £11m of reserves.

Making the case for the changes, he pointed to “significant uncertainty” around funding from central government and grants.

Mr Badger said there were plans to look at senior manager structures. He also referenced planned “technology improvements” and different ways of delivering services.

Since September the council has operated “recruitment prioritisation”, filling only essential roles. Mr Badger said this had “significantly reduced” the redundancies necessary.

“While any redundancy is, of course, regrettable, the original assumption for the programme was that 300 to 400 posts might need to be made redundant,” he said.

“So I am pleased that that position has been reduced. It’s in everyone’s interest that the number of redundancies is minimised – both for individuals who we work with as colleagues, but also in terms of the financial impact for the council of funding those redundancies.

“So that is lower than anticipated, but that doesn’t diminish the impact and uncertainty such a programme like this will have.”