A bleak picture of redundancies and house repossessions was forecast as councillors condemned plans to move public sector jobs to the north of England.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is seeking Worthing Borough Council's views on relocating a substantial number of jobs away from London and the South-East.

Council leader Sheila Player said: "The effect of moving jobs from Worthing would be extremely serious. We rely here on very few types of business for employment.

"Coupled with the fact the Government has refused to do anything with the A27, it would leave us with a serious problem for economic growth.

"With our house prices so much higher there would undoubtedly be redundancies and repossessions and Worthing will not fare well at all. This is very foolhardy indeed."

Tory opposition leader Steven Waight pointed out the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister cost £700 million a year to run and said: "Perhaps we could scrap that."

Councillor Bob Smytherman, head of economic development, said the town was buzzing buoyant at the moment so the idea was most disappointing.

Councillor Peter Green suggested a delegation of councillors and MPs went to Westminster to argue against any switch.