ABOUT 500 Croydon Council jobs are likely to be trimmed as the administration looks to balance its books over the coming years.
The figure was discussed in a meeting of the council's Scrutiny and Overview Committee on Tuesday, where Councillor Simon Hall, cabinet member for finance and treasury, gave an early outline of the council's budget position over the next four years.
According to a report put before the committee by Richard Simpson, the council's director of finance and assets, the authority faces a budget shortfall of £34.5 million in 2015/16 and an overall funding gap of £92.8 million by 2018.
Committee member Jason Cummings pointed out the level of savings required was likely to lead to job losses.
He said: "That [the report] suggests we're looking at losing 500 more council employees."
In response, Mr Simpson said the number of job losses "does depend on the options that the council and cabinet set out", but added he "would expect it to be in that region".
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Hall pointed out it did not mean the council would be making 500 employees redundant.
He said: "It won't necessarily be redundancies over the next three years, and we'll be changing totally how services are provided. There's a lot of scope for not replacing staff who leave or take early retirement.
"We're not at that stage in terms of looking exactly what services will change, but it is likely that the head count of the council will go down by around 500 over the next three years.
"We're in a situation where we've had a massive reduction in Government grants and that is forecast to carry on."
He added the council was facing increasing demographic pressures over the coming years and suffered from an "unfair" settlement from the Government.
Cllr Hall is due to outline budget options for 2015/16 to the committee in December.
