Over 1000 jobs could be lost from organisations overseeing environmental protection and waste regulation in England and Wales under a plan for creating a unified environment agency.
Under this plan, the government could expect to make savings of nearly £23 million a year on the current staff costs of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Pollution, the National Rivers Authority and the waste regulation authorities.
By 1995, when the parliamentary legislation establishing the new agency should be ready, some 8450 staff should be eligible to transfer to it. But, according to a report by consultants Touche Ross, the number of jobs actually available could be reduced by between 400 and 1010 depending on how the new agency - which is modelled on the Environmental Protection Agency in the US - is organised.
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