North to cut 20,000 jobs

Around 20,000 jobs are to be slashed from the North’s public sector following a political deal to safeguard powersharing.

The posts will go over the next four years after money was borrowed in Stormont’s budget for a voluntary exit scheme plus a freeze on recruitment, Stormont finance minister Simon Hamilton said. The planned reduction represents 10% of the public sector workforce.

Extra loans from the UK Treasury increases the country’s indebtedness to £1.8bn (€2.3bn) or £1,000 per head of population, twice that in Scotland, in an effort to tackle an historic lack of infrastructure.