THE city council is planning to rent out its office space to help it save money.

Worcester City Council needs to make £935,000 worth of savings to the 2012/2013 budget but is hoping to add to its revenue by renting out space it no longer uses.

It will also make cuts to back office and support services by restructuring certain departments.

The council has admitted this may mean some job losses, but nowhere near as many as were made during this financial year.

It is hoped that some people whose positions are made redundant will be able to move to other areas of Worcester City Council.

But it is good news for Worcester residents and businesses as the cabinet has suggested keeping the contribution it asks for council tax the same as last year – which works out to £162.10 for a band D property.

Council leader Simon Geraghty said: “Because we’ve taken tough decisions in previous years we’re not having to take measures that would affect local people and local companies.

“We know that both residents and businesses are under pressure in the current economic climate, so we’re responding to their concerns.”

The cabinet has also suggested spending £100,000 on maintenance of play areas across the city, £15,000 to install more litter and dog waste bins, £11,000 to provide a mobile CCTV camera for the city and continue to support Worcester’s visitor economy by extending funding of Visit Worcester for “at least” another six months when it was due to finish this year.

Coun Geraghty said: “During that time we’ll develop a new specification for how we want tourism services to be delivered, with the aim of ensuring we deliver the right service in a cost-efficient way.”

A pot of cash to back initiatives aimed at boosting the local economy has been topped up from £50,000 to £250,000.

But Labour leader Adrian Gregson, however, has warned of the dangers of keeping council tax at the same level, year after year.

He said: “I find the problem with any kind of freezing is that other costs keep going up.

“At some point we’ve got to re-evaluate where we are in relation to incomings which you could have got through council tax.”