Newcastle City Council has approved plans to transfer staff to Northumberland County Council as part of plans to share transactional services.
The move, which will create a single workforce of over 400, is expected to save nearly £1.8m for both councils over the next three years.
Newcastle City Council has now approved the business case for the merger and will now start a formal consultation with staff affected.
Newcastle’s cabinet member for resources, cllr Veronica Dunn, said: ‘Newcastle has a proud record of finding innovative ways of doing more with less. Coming together with our neighbours in Northumberland will, I believe, deliver savings that can be reinvested back into sustaining vital public services that people depend upon.'
Northumberland’s cabinet member for corporate services, cllr Nick Oliver, added: ‘By exploring opportunities to provide joint financial services, this will help us to look at ways we can continue to achieve high quality frontline services in a cost-effective and more efficient way.’
The new service is expected to be up and running by April 1 2018.
