The City of Edinburgh has approved a range of measures to meet a £126m funding shortfall, and will proceed with further discussions on compulsory redundancies, despite a previous pledge not to do so.

The decisions were taken yesterday at a meeting of the Finance and Resources Committee, following last week’s announcement that up to 2,000 jobs may be cut to cope with the shortfall.

While the council would seek volunteers for redundancy first, the announcement comes as a further blow to Councillors after over 1,000 more job losses were announced last week than were anticipated by the council in June.

Plans to outsource the Facilities Management service were rejected, with councillors requesting new proposals be developed for delivering these services in-house with specialised support. The four-year budget framework that was agreed will now form the basis of the Council’s annual public engagement exercise which will start next Monday.

Cllr Alasdair Rankin, finance convener, said: 'This is the start of a long process. There were some important decisions made today and we have agreed the framework for achieving the savings needed over the next four years.

'With greater demand for our services and our overall budget remaining the same we need to take action to ensure we safeguard frontline services for the people of Edinburgh.

'We are very clear about the scale of the financial challenge that the Council is facing and we will work tirelessly to ensure that the services we provide are the ones which people need and want.'