Leicestershire County Council will cut an estimated 500 full-time jobs in an attempt to save £26m this year--the highest annual saving it has ever had to make.

The council has to save £110m over the course of this Parliament following £103m of cuts during the last one and it has warned that this will have a detrimental impact on services.

In total the council needs to find £78m worth of savings over the next four years, which will include proposed cuts to bus subsidies, waste sites and public health work, as well as the job losses.

So far it has identified £59m, but it still needs to find another £19m.

The council projects £27m of efficiency savings will have to be made during the next four years and they report an estimated £41.3m will be needed to meet rising demand in adult and children’s social care, and waste.

Leicestershire also says there will be Council Tax rises of 3.99% per year. This includes the 2% precept to support adult social care, which was introduced by the Government last November.

The council emphasises that this 2% precept will not cover the full costs of adult social care.

Deputy council leader, Cllr Byron Rhodes said:

‘This is the most challenging budget that the council has faced for a generation. We were already the lowest funded county council – but now the funding formula is shifting even more money away from counties to cities and London boroughs, which hits us even harder.

‘We’ll have to take tough decisions such as cuts to early help and public health services and rural bus subsidies, if we are to deliver the savings that we need – and next year will be very tough indeed.’