New figures show the council spent hundreds of thousands of pounds as it laid off dozens of employees in the last year.

The Local Government Association said councils across the country have been forced to reduce their workforce due to budget cuts.

This is despite dramatic increases in the volume and range of services provided.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities figures show 32 people were laid off by the council in 2021-22 at an average of £20,034 per person.

This meant the council forked out a total of £641,084 in exit packages last year, up from £324,260 in 2020-21 but below the £3,993,796 paid out in 2019-20.

The local authority spent 85 per cent less on redundancy packages than in 2014-15 when it let go of 135 employees at a total cost of £4.2m.

"Difficult decisions" lie ahead for the council as it prepares to set its budget for next year.

A council spokesperson said: “The figures reported represent all payments made to individuals on leaving the council’s employment.

“The council has clear policies and procedures in place in relation to such payments to ensure we both meet our legal obligations to our employees and make best use of taxpayers’ money in compliance with the relevant rules around redundancy and exit payments.

“Like all local authorities Bury is in a challenging financial position and we are currently in the process of talking to residents as part of the process of setting our budget for next year.

"In setting a balanced budget we will have to make some difficult decisions.”

Across England, the total amount spent on exit payments fell for the fifth-successive year, from £250m in 2020-21 to £210m last year.

However, more staff were laid off than the year before, 9,744 compared to 9,454.

Andrew Western, chairman of the LGA's resources board, said councils have made layoffs in order to manage their budgets and avoid further pressure on taxpayers.

He said: "Without funding from the government to meet the pressure of an accelerating National Living Wage on top of soaring energy and other costs, more redundancies are likely, exacerbating the capacity crisis that is already acute in some areas and impacting the delivery of services to the public."

The data also shows the average exit payment across England fell from £27,000 to £22,000 in the year to March.

Ian Miller, honorary secretary of the Association of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers, said this shows there was no need for the exit-payment cap briefly introduced by the government in 2020.

The cap, which meant public sector bodies' redundancy packages could not top £95,000, was brought in in November 2020, before being scrapped three months later.