Two hundred jobs are set to go at Kingston Council in the next two to three years, as the authority tries to cope with an expected 10 to 15 per cent reduction in spending for that period.

The figures were given in response to a BBC survey released this week, showing 25,000 council jobs may be lost across the country as local government struggles to cope with predicted budget cuts.

Kingston currently employs 4,000 people, excluding schools, and warned that adult social services, highways, libraries, leisure, arts and the voluntary sector were most vulnerable in the spending squeeze.

The council’s budget for 2010-11, approved last week, already includes a minimal 0.2 per cent increase in funding for adult social services, with children’s social services one of the few areas to see real-terms growth, a reflection of additional demand since the death of Baby Peter in Haringey.

Liberal Democrat councillors say their cost-cutting One Council programme is delivering millions of pounds of savings, but Conservatives criticised it as starting too late and delivering some savings behind schedule.