UP TO 2000 council jobs will be lost across Scotland in the next financial year, following the loss of 7000 this year, as public service cuts instigated by Westminster bite ever more deeply into local services.

The National has learned the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) and senior trade unionists have calculated the figure after the announcements of reductions in their workforces by several councils in the past few days.

One senior councillor, who asked not to be named, told this newspaper that, had the Scottish Government not put more money into local authority budgets last week, the job cuts in 2017-18 would have been “on a par with this year". The revelations follow the news that Midlothian has become the first authority to increase council tax since the ending of the freeze the SNP Government instituted nine years ago.

All local authorities will see rises due to changes in bandings, and most have said they will take advantage of new Government rules and increase Band D rates by three per cent.

Today Edinburgh, Scottish Borders, East Renfrewshire and Aberdeenshire councils are expected to increase council tax, with the cap- ital's coalition administration raising Edinburgh’s Band D rate by three per cent. The figure will be the same in the Borders, while Aberdeenshire’s tax will go up by 2.5 per cent.

Most other councils look set to follow suit but Inverclyde will use its reserves and not increase council tax, as is also the planned case with South Lanarkshire.

The ruling Labour group in Inverclyde said: “The group considered closing some of the budget gap with a three per cent rise as recommended by the Scottish Government.

“However, on balance, members of the group decided against this.

"They are conscious that 7000 households in Inverclyde already face potential rises of between 7.5 per cent and 22.5 per cent and did not wish to add to the burden on these families.”

For a variety of reasons such as levels of historic debt, several councils will still have to make savings by cutting jobs.

Fife Council predicts a possible loss of 300 jobs, while in the Borders there are plans to cut an est- imated 123 posts although there are currently 150 vacancies meaning that jobs would be discontinued rather than redundancies imposed.

Aberdeen City Council has stated that 200 jobs could go, while East Renfewshire has still to calculate its cuts but has pledged no compulsory redundancies. Highland Council had forecast more than 100 job losses but is revising that figure in light of last week’s budget allocations.

Asked if the figure of 2000 jobs being cut by councils next year was likely, trade union negotiator Dave Watson of Unison said: “I wouldn’t put a figure on it yet but, if you extrapolate from the losses already announced, I don’t think it will be a million miles off that 2000 number.

He added: “It is too early to speculate, but it does look as though the job losses will not be as bad as this year.

“We and Cosla both agree that around 7000 jobs have gone this year, and I would hope that it would be significantly less than that next year as a result of the late change in the budget.

“While still leaving a gap in council funding, it is certainly not as bad as this year’s gap so you would hope that the job loss numbers in the coming year won’t be of the scale we have had this year.

“A lot will depend on how many councils put up council tax, and there is a tradition of councils using reserves in an election year, so that could help keep job losses down."