Bradford Council has dismissed claims it is axing 1,000 jobs as mere speculation.

According to research by the GMB union, Bradford Council is in the top 28 public body organisations with the highest number of job losses in the pipeline.

It claims 1,000 jobs will go across the organisation.

Also included in the 28-strong list is Leeds City Council with 1,400 job losses, 1,500 at Kirklees Council and 1,000 at Sheffield City Council.

The GMB say 36,000 jobs will go across NHS trusts nationally, a further 10,000 from the NHS, 15,000 from the Ministry of Justice and 8,000 from the Department for Work and Pensions.

Leader of Bradford Council Ian Greenwood dismissed the claim as speculation ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review next month.

He said: “The expected scale of the Government’s cuts, which will be announced in their Comprehensive Spending Review on October 20, means that difficult decisions will have to be made that will impact adversely in many areas of local people’s lives.

“The Council is already working to identify savings. We are looking to manage any reduction in employees as far as possible through turnover of staff and controlling vacancies, whilst at the same time protecting vulnerable people and frontline services.

“The figure of 1,000 job losses has not been issued by Bradford Council. Any such figures can only be speculation before the Government Spending Review.

“Our priority is to make sure that the people of this district get the best services possible from their local Council. We are reviewing the way we do things, cutting bureaucracy and duplication to provide services that are modern, efficient and cost-effective.

“While most of the work we are doing is being carried out internally we will be consulting widely on the changes we will need to make, particularly when they affect frontline services.”

Tim Roache, GMB regional secretary, said: “Current job losses already announced in the public sector of nearly 150,000 nationally are just the tip of the iceberg heading for our services and our economy when the Comprehensive Spending Review finally hits home next month.

“Unemployment and cuts in public services follow the appointment of a Tory-led government like night follows day. It was the excesses of the bankers not high public spending that caused the recession. The ideology of the Tory Party is for a smaller State and they are hell bent on using the recession to impose these ideologically driven cuts.”