Councils in Wales could save £151m a year in administrative costs if they transformed back office services in line with English authorities, a new report has concluded.
The report, commissioned by public services minister Leighton Andrews, found ‘substantial’ savings could be achieved by councils standardising their approach to activities such as ICT, finance and property management.
Mr Andrews said the findings support the need for local government reform in Wales.
‘The report emphasises the value of authorities benchmarking these services against their peers within Wales and best practice internationally,’ said Mr Andrews. ‘Many of these savings can be delivered now without the need to await wider structural reform to local government in Wales.
‘We will now consider the recommendations in the report, which will enable local authorities to compare and contrast expenditure and understand where practice should be changed to move a greater proportion of the spending to delivering services to citizens.’
