Eight Essex councils covering one million people are in talks to share services in a bid to make savings.
Leaders and chief executives from Epping Forest, Uttlesford, Harlow, Maldon, Tendring, Chelmsford, Braintree and Colchester councils have met in an attempt to identify where services could be shared.
Tendring leader Neil Stock said: ‘There’s a strong willingness from the leaders to make progress on this in a way I’ve never seen before.
‘Lockdown has shown that local government can be delivered remotely many things we didn’t think were possible to deliver remotely.’
Cllr Stock told a meeting of his cabinet that planning had been raised and waste collection was the ‘biggest prize of all’.
He said the councils were working towards a memorandum of understanding on services, but there was ‘no talk of integrating councils’.
Cllr Stock added: ‘We are staring down the barrel of massive cutbacks or massive amounts of problems if we don’t make tough decisions.
‘At the back of our minds is the ghost of Thurrock and other authorities close to getting into that situation, and other councils like Slough that have slid in into the pit of despair in terms of their finances.’
