Dundee City Council has asked thousands of staff members to consider voluntary redundancies in an effort to make £23m of savings, The Courier reports.

The council has asked more than 6,000 of its 7,900 workers to think about taking voluntary redundancy.

Working on the assumption that the council’s grant allocation would only be reduced by 1.6% per year over the 2016-2018 period, the council projected that it would need to make £16m of savings to achieve a balanced budget in 2016/17, and £12.1m in 2017/18.

However, the Scottish government’s surprise announcement last month that local government funding would be cut by 3.5% has meant that councils have to find more savings than originally anticipated.