27 October 2010
Eight councils in the west of Scotland are likely to begin sharing services in an arrangement that could save them up to £70m over five years, it emerged today.
The councils – West Dunbartonshire, East Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire, Glasgow, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire – are all part of the Clyde Valley Community Planning Partnership. Together they have a combined budget of £6.5bn, a payroll of 76,000 and provide services for about a third of Scotland’s population.
The councils in the CVCPP have identified four service areas each expected to bring in savings of up to 20% of existing expenditure. These are: waste management, social transport, health and social care, and back-office functions such as finance, human resources and IT.
Outline business cases for each of these areas are being developed and will be presented to the leaders and chief executives of each of the councils at the end of November.
Ronnie McColl, chair of the CVCPP, said: ‘Every council in Scotland is currently facing the most significant budget gap in living memory. The CVCPP shared services project will help contribute towards meeting that challenge, in a way that reduces the burden on the taxpayer and still provides good levels of service to the local community.
‘All the council leaders and chief executives on the CVCPP are enthusiastic about the potential of shared services and its ability to help us provide first-rate services at the best possible value for our residents.
‘I’m extremely optimistic that this pace of change and delivery will be maintained with the full agreement of the outline business cases at our next meeting in November.’
The move follows recommendations made by former Strathclyde university principal Sir John Arbuthnott last year. Arbuthnott was commissioned by the councils in the CVCPP to conduct a strategic review of joint working. He concluded that there were significant opportunities to make savings.
