Brandon Lewis is the Minister for Local Government
As promised in my recent article about the Transformation Challenge Award, I will be writing a monthly installment for the Local Government section of Conservative Home to share some of the groundbreaking work that Conservative Councils are doing across the UK. On visits to local authorities around the country, I have seen a wealth of innovative ideas being implemented to the benefit of residents. We are moving in the right direction, with more and more councils sharing services, back offices and executives. I hope that this blog will serve as a route to share these ideas.
If your local authority is doing some particularly good work, please contact me and let me know. Similarly, if you like any of the examples you see on here, get in touch with your council and ask if they have considered doing something similar.
This month’s example is Wyre Borough Council.
Wyre Borough Council has fundamentally re-examined the way they operate in order to make significant savings whilst simultaneously improving resident satisfaction with their services. For example, the Council’s senior management team has been reduced from seven posts to three whilst there are now 12 second tier managers compared to 26 previously. The council holds a Gold Investor in People award and has a lower sickness rate than both the public and private sector averages.
A re-tendering of the waste contract has saved £1.4 million per year and resulted in a reduced number of complaints and increased recycling rates. The street cleansing function has been taken in-house, again resulting in a saving (of £200,000 per year) and a reduction in complaints.
Furthermore, the Council is investing £5.4 million in modernising its leisure centres which will not only improve and enhance the offer to customers but also reduce the subsidy from council taxpayers by £130,000 per year.