Birmingham City Council has warned 1,200 jobs will be lost as it tries to find savings of £250m over the next four years.

The council published its budget consultation yesterday, warning ‘difficult decisions’ were needed to balance the books.

Leader of the council, Cllr John Clancy, said local government would see ‘profound change’ over the next few years. ‘We will have more independence, but there are also big questions about how this will impact on the resources available in Birmingham and the additional responsibilities councils will be expected to undertake in return.

‘New city-regional leadership will be put in place through the Combined Authority, with new powers devolved from central government to allow us to drive economic growth and investment.

'The council’s organisation will become much more strategic and much smaller and there will be important changes to the ways that people can engage in their local community, such as the new local council for Sutton Coldfield.’

However, trade union GMB warned that changes to terms and conditions would negatively impact staff who did keep their job at the council.

Gill Whittaker, GMB organisers, said: ‘The majority of savings generated from the council's proposals come at the expense of ordinary council workers. Again, this is either through further job losses, outsourcing, reductions in pay or attacks on sick pay.’

Stuart Richards, GMB senior organiser, added: ‘The council is now proposing to remove workers from national agreements and to attack what's left of their terms and conditions. This is not the way to cope with this funding crisis and GMB will continue to fight for our members working across the council.’