THE hunt is on for outside firms to 'rent' space at County Hall - as the latest stage in plans to slash £98 million and axe 1,500 jobs are about to be endorsed.

Worcestershire County Council's leadership is about to press the green light on a raft of huge changes as part of a four-year blueprint to shrink in size.

A new report for the Conservative Cabinet has revealed what progress is being made on plans to hand over 85 per cent of services to outside bodies.

The dossier, set to be voted on tomorrow, Thursday, reveals:

- Bosses want to "create space" at County Hall by bunching more staff together before searching for outside bodies to rent sections of the building to bring in £150,000

- 25 library jobs, from a total of 140 including The Hive, face being slashed and replaced by volunteers to save £300,000

- It wants to press on with outsourcing the jobs of 297 staff working in school support roles, aimed at finding a third party to take the function over to save £1.6 million

- The council, which is cutting £30 million this year, wants to save £27 million next year but has a £5 million 'black hole' it needs to plug, meaning further talks with politicians are imminent

- 61 jobs in HR are at risk because the council wants to downsize the department, and reduce the training it offers adult social care workers, saving a combined £470,000

- It wants to save £100,000 by merging the workloads of staff working on public rights of way inspections and highways maintenance, although the job losses have yet to be revealed

The full documents for the cabinet include changes to 43 different areas of the council, with each proposal at various stages.

The Conservative leadership will be asked to endorse the changes, which will result in each different project being developed separately, including lengthy consultations.

It forms part of the blueprint, voted on by full council back in May, to cut 1,500 jobs by 2018 leaving just 2,000 in-house staff.

The new operating model assumes all but 15 per cent of the council's services will be taken over by outside providers, resulting in many staff transferring employment.

Jim Price, secretary of the county's Unison branch, said: "We are very concerned about where the council is going - it's heading for this 'commercialisation of services', there will be a real impact on staff."

Councillor Simon Geraghty, deputy leader, said: "We want to become an excellent council that will become more commercialised."