Stoke cancels privatised partnership

Friday, March 05, 2010

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has pulled out of a £250m outsourcing plan, admitting it will not deliver the savings originally envisaged.

According to The Sentinel newspaper, the council had originally planned to transfer up to 800 council staff to either Balfour Beatty Workplace or BT Global Solutions and Serco. The transferred staff were then expected to be located in a new business district being developed in the city.

But Stoke-on-Trent's new chief executive, John van de Laarschot, has instructed councillors and staff members to drop the scheme. He said the council would only save 3 per cent over the life of the contract, compared with the current cost of employing existing staff.

Areas that would have been affected by the transfer included IT, payroll, HR, property, CCTV maintenance and administration.

Deputy council leader and cabinet member for regeneration councillor Brian Ward said the plans had been reviewed since the departure of interim chief executive Chris Harman in October 2009.

He said: "This will be a difficult decision for the cabinet and one which will not be taken lightly.

"However, it is important the council makes the right decisions in light of the current economic climate and the need for future savings."

Potteries Alliance leader councillor Peter Kent-Baguley, who attended the briefing, said Van de Laarschot's conclusions mirrored his own doubts about the plan.

"We were told more than £1.5m has already been wasted on payments to consultants, and that we stood to lose almost another £1m if it went any further," he said.

"I had always queried how this outsourcing arrangement would benefit the council, and the chief executive has now confirmed it wouldn't."