Councils are paying almost four times the recommended mark-up on technology products, new analysis has revealed.

A new study, published by Probrand, found councils are paying a 11.39% margin to IT suppliers.

The report finds that councils could have saved more than £300,000 if they had paid the recommended margin of no more than 3%.

Ian Nethercot, MCIPS supply chain director at Probrand, said: ‘IT buyers are fundamentally not getting the deals they expect or deserve. The volatility and complexity of the market, with a dose of human intervention in between, is seeing IT budgets unknowingly wasted.

‘Buyers are also consuming vast swathes of time doing their level best to manually get quotes, compare and negotiate discounts.’

The report finds that vendors used the uncertainties around Brexit to increase prices at the beginning of 2019.