UP to £90 million could be slashed off the town hall budget prompting fears for jobs and vital services.

Speaking to the Observer, Councillor Ann John OBE (pictured), said the situation is far worse than first thought.

Before the election, the previous Liberal Democrat/Conservative administration aimed to achieve up to £50million in savings over four years. But the new leader said it could be more like £90million.

She said she did not know where these cuts were going to be made but that she would do all she could to avoid hitting front-line services.

Job losses are inevitable though, she warned.

She said: "We are going to be slaughtered. Fifty-three million pounds was the target before George

Osborne's budget. Now it could be more like £90m. It is going to be really, really painful.

"We have to make it [the council] smarter and watch the way we spend every pound. We have to make sure the front-line services are not affected. The work we do over the next month will set the tone for this council."

Councillor John says the council has to cut at least £6.6m this year alone, but will have a clearer outline of who will be worst hit by the autumn.

She said: "I am one of the world's optimists and this council can be a changed administration. The previous administration coasted for the past four years. We have to take this administration and shake it up.

"There will be jobs going. There is no denying that. We don't know where yet. It is difficult to fore-cast."

According to the leader, the new civic centre planned to be built in Wembley is key to saving money, by building an energy-efficient building for large numbers of council workers.

Other buildings would be lost by the council, thus saving on overhead costs.

But Councillor Paul Lorber, leader of Brent Liberal Democrat group, has slammed the Labour group for not explaining where these cuts will be made.

He said: "Brent Labour screamed from the rooftops in opposition to our planned efficiency programme.

"We always said it was necessary to protect front-line services.

"We also set out publicly where and how we would make the savings we proposed so people could see for themselves.

"Labour pledged to review the efficiency programme in their manifesto and now they have taken office the first thing they do is to increase the cuts, but with no organised explanation of how and from where.

"Labour must now come clean about what this will mean for local people and local services."