Sefton MBC has awarded contracts valued at £230m to Capita Symonds and Arvato Services, for the takeover of council services.
The decision, agreed with cross-party support at a meeting of the full council, forms part of Sefton’s Major Service Review (MSR) exercise, which has been examining ways to improve services and reduce costs over the past 18 months.
Arvato will take over running of finance and information services, including council tax, benefits, support to schools, contact and call centres, benefit fraud investigation, payroll and human resources.
The contract will start in October and is worth some £172.4m over the next 10 years – with an estimated saving of almost £20m to Sefton when compared with existing in-house costs.
Arvato has promised to invest almost £4m in major IT improvement and will create some 200 new jobs. Capita Symonds will take over responsibility for technical services, covering architecture and quantity surveying, building maintenance, engineering design, estate management, highways, streetlighting, drainage and energy management.
This contract will also start in October, and is worth some £64.9m to Capita Symonds, with a saving of around £3.8m to Sefton, and the prospect of £7.4m new investment and creating up to 250 new jobs over the 10-year partnership agreement.
Sefton Council leader, Cllr Tony Robertson, said: ‘It has been a major step for the council and residents of Sefton that we have been able to form partnerships with two major companies with excellent track records in providing high-quality services and value for money.
‘Our residents will now benefit from continuous improvements to the service, while council tax will be able to be kept as low as possible.’
Highway Maintenance Budgets: The Long View
Mark Stevens, ADEPT, talks about local authority highway maintenance budgets, looking at how they have been impacted over the years by funding cuts.
