JOBLESS figures in North West Hampshire have soared by 84 per cent in a year – and now Test Valley Borough Council is warning of possible staff and service cuts.

Nearly 800 people in the area are on unemployment benefit according to recent figures on job seekers’ allowance claimants.

Over the 12 months since November 2007 there has been an 84 per cent rise in unemployment in North West Hampshire with 784 people seeking benefit, compared with 426 in 2007.

More than 20,000 people throughout Hampshire are out of work according to the figures obtained from the House of Commons by Romsey MP Sandra Gidley.

She said: “These figures are deeply worrying and indicate a sharp rise in the number of job losses right across the country, “The situation has been intensified with the recent closure of local Woolworths stores and other local businesses going bust.”

Borough council leader Ian Carr says the credit crunch and low interest rates have badly hit the council, which has to agree its new budget by February.

“It’s a really difficult time,” he said. “There’s some hard decisions that the Cabinet needs to make and the council needs to make to ensure we get a balanced budget this year.

“There will be some decisions that will be made that we won’t really want to make and wouldn’t make in normal times.

“When you have got such a big deficit because of the money interest that we’ve lost and we are capped on how much we can charge the residents you have to look at all the hard issues.

“There’s no hiding place in the borough council at the moment for anybody.”

He added: “Every service and every person is being looked at because that’s how bad it is.

“People and services are at risk, there’s no two ways about it.”