Glasgow bosses are reported to be spending more than £13m to persuade the council’s top earners to quit.

The cash is expected to be shared by 102 senior staff who have applied for voluntary redundancy or early retirement deals.

It could see one in three of the city’s top managers – each earning more than £47,000 a year – quitting their jobs. Each one would average a “golden goodbye” deal worth £128,000, plus pension top-ups.

They are among more than 2600 staff who have opted to leave the council, which is having to stump up £127m to fund voluntary redundancy and early retirement packages at a time when officials are trying to find massive budget cuts.

But the amount of money being used to axe jobs was defended today by council leader Gordon Matheson.

He said: “The council will have to find savings of around £115m over the next two years. Cuts on this scale have not been attempted since local government reorganisation and they will inevitably impact on the number and quality of services we are able to provide to the people of the city.

“The council has already embarked on substantial reform. For example, we have identified more than 2600 staff willing to take early retirement over the next three years, enabling us to bring down our headcount and staffing costs.”

The council has made it known it wants to axe another 1400 jobs.

It currently has a workforce of 35,000.