Government cuts were blamed for Birmingham City Council's decision to axe a further 6,000 jobs in the next four years.

Unite, which represents over 1,000 employees at the city council, said that this was "a savage blow" not just for the hardworking council workforce, but for the million people that rely on its services.

Unite regional secretary for the West Midlands Gerard Coyne said: "This will be a crippling blow to the West Midlands regional economy as we estimate that for every pound spent on council staff wages 52 pence is spent locally.

"The city council faces about £200 million worth of cuts and the workforce which stood at 20,000 in 2011 will be pruned back to just under 7,000 in the next three years. By 2018, a total of £800 million of worth cuts will have been enforced – which equates to 60 per cent of the controllable budget.

"This will be heart breaking news for the council employees whose jobs are under threat and their families and further reinforces the savagery of the coalition's austerity programme.

"People rely on council services to educate their children, to care for the elderly, to provide housing for those in need, and act as an agent of economic generation – all these services, and many more, will be severely eroded.

"Birmingham, which was a pioneer in municipal improvements under Joe Chamberlain in Victorian times, has been abandoned by George Osborne in London."

(CD)