Councils have saved more than £100m in the past year by using the Local Government Association’s sector-led improvement (SLI) offer.

The LGA said all councils have received support from the scheme in the last 12 months, including the delivery of 140 peer challenges, training of more than 800 councillors and recruitment of more than 200 graduates.

The annual SLI report also shows the LGA’s productivity experts have delivered more than £42m of efficiency savings, while the deployment of commercial experts have generated almost £10m of additional income for councils.

Cllr Peter Fleming, chairman of the LGA’s Improvement and Innovation Board, said: ‘Sector-led improvement continues to be an amazing local government success story that we should be proud of.

‘There is huge opportunity for this successful approach to improvement to be enhanced over the next decade. Councils have embraced sector-led improvement and have shown willingness to work with the LGA and MHCLG to become more effective and efficient.’