More than 1,000 Lewisham Council employees have been made redundant since 2011 – costing the council more than £24.7m in redundancy payments.

And further redundancies haven’t been ruled out.

Lewisham Council needs to cut £30 million by 2021 but has only found £21 million of cuts for the next two years, after cuts in government funding.

A Lewisham Council spokeswoman said the amount of jobs which might be lost as a result of cuts from April this year was not yet known.

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She said: “We don’t envisage the redundancy numbers will be as high as in some previous years and, as always, we work hard to minimise redundancies when posts are reduced.

“We have published a programme of cuts in the Revenue Budget Cuts 2019/20 paper (Mayor & Cabinet 21 November 2018) and detailed department planning is under way to implement these cuts, which will include the understanding of the impact on posts.”

The 2011/2012 financial year saw the highest number of jobs axed, with 393 employees made redundant at an average payment of £23k per employee, costing the council more than £9m.

The 2013/2014 financial year saw the second highest round of job cuts, with 222 people made redundant, while 99 people were made redundant in 2017/2018 and 98 people in 2016/2017.

Lewisham Council would not disclose what directorates saw job cuts.

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Unison London regional organiser, Colin Inniss, said staffing levels had already been significantly reduced as a result of government cuts.

“Local government has been hit again and again by budget cuts caused by austerity policies. Staffing levels have already been pared to the bone in Lewisham,” he explained.

“Inevitably these have a huge human cost. More than a thousand people have lost their livelihood in the past few years, vital services are being cut and those still in work have an increased workload often for no more money.”

Cllr Paul Bell recently apologised to council employees who had lost their jobs, and described the cuts as a “human tragedy” and “a crisis” at a council meeting.