Up to 110 jobs at Hounslow Council are due to be axed this year as part of £6.9m savings proposals, it was revealed today.

The council’s improvement plan, which has helped achieve a 0 per cent rise in council tax for the third consecutive year, has come with massive cuts across departments.

Council leader Peter Thompson said at a budget meeting last month that services would have to “work smarter and harder,” but the savings provided “value for money and efficiency”.

A council spokesman said: “At this stage we anticipate a reduction of up to 110 posts during 2009/10. We cannot yet say how many will be management positions or the number in each department.

“We will be reviewing vacant posts before making staff redundant and will use voluntary redundancy to assist in achieving the reduction.”

Councillor Ruth Cadbury, deputy leader of the opposition Labour group, said she was concerned the loss of experienced staff would reduce quality of services.

She said: “There doesn’t seem to be anything in place that I’m aware of to address the issue of the loss of knowledge.

“It feels like panic measures, and we are extremely worried about the implications on services. I don’t believe that good services will be delivered if they address the issue in the panicked way they are doing this.”

The budget report outlined proposed cuts of £811,000 to community services, £1.1m to the environment department, £1.6m to the finance department, £2.26m to children’s services and £944,000 to corporate services.

The council spent £4.3m on fees for financial consultants KPMG as part of the three-year improvement programme, which has delivered £53m for services and enabled council tax to be frozen. Job losses led to £20m savings.

It faced criticism last year after 300 council posts were axed, with some workers having years of experience at the local authority.

Coun Cadbury added: “I don’t think this is an improvement programme, I think this is a cuts programme.”