A whopping six thousand jobs will be slashed at Birmingham City Council in the next four years, it emerged as we went to press last night.

Union reps blasted Whitehall for taking the scissors to the city’s budget, as it was revealed that Communities Secretary Eric Pickles expects councillors to make huge cuts of £200 million by 2018.

Reps are due to meet council leader Sir Albert Bore for an urgent briefing on the cuts.

Unite, which represents over 1,000 employees at the council, said the “heartbreaking news” would be a “savage blow” to service users as well as staff.

Unite West Midlands regional secretary Gerard Coyne said: “This will be a crippling blow to our 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 worth of cuts will have been enforced — which equates to 60 per cent of the controllable budget.

“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.

Unite national officer for local government Fiona Farmer added: “What is happening in Birmingham is and will be replicated across the country’s local authorities and will be strongly resisted.”