Sefton Council in move to take major services private

Feb 29 2008 by Ben Schofield, Liverpool Daily Post

GLOBAL finance giant Arvato is in pole position to take over Sefton Council's financial services, the Daily Post can reveal.

And UK-based Capita Symonds, the engineering consultants, are being primed to deliver the borough's technical services.

The council is outsourcing services in a bid to cut costs.

Through undergoing what has been known as a major services review, Sefton will save £1m this year.

The decision to make Arvato and Capita Symonds preferred bidders was ratified behind closed doors at last night's full council meeting, following a cabinet decision earlier yesterday.

Sefton councillors also set a budget that will see households paying 4.06% more in their council tax bills.

Arvato and Capita Symonds entered bids into the review.

Both firms were due to be told at 10am yesterday morning and will now enter into negotiations with the council's chief executive to determine a final price. If those negotiations break down, first reserves Capita, a separate company from Capita Symonds – for finance – and Mouchel – for technical services – will be invited to enter bids.

The review was criticised by union representatives working at the council as wholesale “privatisation” of council services.

After the 4.06% rise in tax, an average Band D house will pay £1,202.11 next financial year, £54.42 more than this year.

Conservative group leader Cllr Paula Parry said: “I'm very pleased – the leaders have been working on it since last July – it's better to start early.”

The increase includes a 3.95% rise from Sefton Council for services it provides and those which are Merseyside wide.

The fire and police authorities set their budgets last week, with 4% and 5% rises respectively.

When those are included in Sefton's package, the increase comes to 4.06%.

At last night's full council meeting, Cllr Parry highlighted how Sefton received the lowest government grant per head of all Merseyside authorities.

YESTERDAY, the Daily Post mistakenly stated in a council tax table that Wirral Council was proposing to raise its tax by 4.9%.

This was incorrect – in fact, Wirral Council has already approved an increase of 3.5% in its tax.

benschofield