Support staff numbers cut at half of UK universities

Soilent have been going down the pan for some time, they off-loaded many estates and catering roles to FM contractors 'to save money' even before the pandemic, the quality of food for students went down the pan with that, and the costs to maintain the 'estate' went up. Their local competitors have slowly following suit as they can't recruit staff with the p-poor pay they're offering, which with their 'local' pensions scheme's now in the bean counters/HR sights for downgrading for 'equality' to match USS, will be even harder. How many staff have left because they no longer work for the departments and faculties directly, being remotely managed by 'professional services' directorates with no idea of the day to day running of a University?

Actually there is huge scope to cut down on the bureaucracy in UK universities. There seem to be far to many procedures, meaningless changes and bureaucracy and outright incomeptence that things will run better with less support staff. This will then release funds to pay the academics better.