Local government is still shedding staff with 33,000 fewer jobs in the first quarter of this year, down to a total of 2,647m, according to latest figures from the Office of National Statistics.

A total of 202,000 local government jobs or 7% of the total, including teachers, disappeared between the first quarter of 2011 and that of 2012, Of these 6,000 were staff in schools transferring to academy status where they are classified as working for central government. The civil service contracted during the same period by 9.6%.