Hounslow Council has been accused of 'wasting' £5.9 million in five years on 'unnecessary' redundancy costs.

That is the sum spent by the council on redundancy payments above the statutory minimum between 2008/9 and 2012/13, according to a Freedom of Information response to the ICG, which is contesting the upcoming local elections.

ICG chairman Ian Speed said: "The ICG is appalled that Labour has wasted millions of public money on unnecessary redundancy costs at a time of cuts and austerity.

"They may have avoided closing sites like libraries for the time being, but who knows what will happen in the future? This money could have been tucked away in the council's funds to protect against future cuts."

Mr Speed joined protests in 2010/11 against proposed library closures, which led to a council u-turn. He said he was shocked to learn the council had 'wasted' £1.33m on more generous redundancy packages that year, a sum which dwarfed the £868,000 the council had hoped to save by closing libraries.

The FOI figures cover the last two years of the previous council, run by a Tory-led coalition, during which £2.6m of such payments were made, and the first three years of the current Labour administration.

The ICG, which was part of the ruling Tory coalition, said the figures had not been shared with its members by the Tories as it did not have an 'obvious service impact at the time'.

There have been a significant number of redundancies in recent years as the council slashed its budget by £60m between 2011/12 and 2014/15 following a reduction in central government funding.

Between 2008/9 and 2012/13, a total of 511 council staff were laid off. The vast majority of these redundancies were voluntary but more than 100 were compulsory.

Redundancy costs above the statutory minimum were lower last year than in any of the previous four years, at £954,000. There are no figures available yet for this financial year.

Although the cost of redundancies has fallen in recent years so have the number of staff laid off. The cost per redundancy in the last financial year was more than £23,000, compared with less than £8,000 in 2008/9.

This could be explained by the fact the current administration has tried to reduce the number of senior staff, often requiring a more generous redundancy package, while maintaining front line staff.

The council has provided new figures, which show a slightly lower total cost above the statutory minimum, of £5.8m, than those initially stated in its FOI response.

A council spokesman said the council ran a special voluntary redundancy scheme in 2008/9 and 2009/10 which offered six months pay to encourage people to leave as part of its ‘Performance Improvement Programme’.

In November 2010, a new severance policy was introduced, taking into account people’s age and length of service, which the council says is ‘far more cost-effective’ than comparable packages in the public sector.

Councillor Tom Bruce, the council's cabinet member for human resources, said: "These figures prove Tories, along with the ICG, were responsible for MORE redundancies in the last two years they were in power, and at a greater cost to the taxpayer, than in the following two years of Labour control.

"How he can accuse us of wasting £5.9m over five years, when his own party along with the Tories were in charge for two of them, is a complete mystery. In the past two years Labour has reduced the numbers of staff made redundant and the associated costs.

"If the Tories didn't share these figures with the ICG, it proves they were embarrassed by them. It also proves the Tories didn't trust the ICG, but given Mr Speed’s interpretation of the basic facts, I don’t blame them.

"Above all, it proves the voters were right not to trust either party and that's why they were both booted out in 2010."

 Year

Number of staff made redundant

Cost above statutory redundancy pay (£)

 

 

 

2008/9

183

1,417,786

2009/10

101

1,078,960

2010/11

163

1,333,788

2011/12

64

1,029,502

2012/13

41

953,643

Total

511

5,813,679