First supercouncil could save town halls £100m

12 April 2012

Plans for the first "supercouncil" in London, to serve almost 600,000 people, were unveiled today.

The bosses of Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham councils said services could be shared to save up to £100 million.

The three Tory controlled-boroughs would retain their separate political independence but front-line services, from education to rubbish collection, would be merged.

Labour claimed it was a "criminal" attack on local services "that will centralise decision making in the hands of three Tory council leaders and a few unaccountable town hall officials".

It is likely to mean heavy redundancies among the 1,800 managers at the authorities. But the three leaders said radical thinking to cut costs and protect front-line services was unavoidable in the age of austerity.

Chancellor George Osborne announced 26 per cent town hall budget cuts over the next four years in his comprehensive spending review, equivalent to £3.1 billion off local government spending in London. The council leaders — Colin Barrow of Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham's Stephen Greenhalgh and Sir Merrick Cockell, of Kensington and Chelsea — have asked their chief executives to come up with detailed proposals about how the plan could be implemented. They are due to report back in February.

The three leaders said: "Ensuring we can provide a high standard of local services in today's tough economic climate means thinking differently about how we operate, concentrating on what's important to the people we serve and ensuring we continue to care for the most vulnerable."

They plan to set up working groups "to develop and study options" for environmental, family and corporate services.

Sir Merrick said the authorities would gain economic clout on a par with cities such as Glasgow and Birmingham, helping them to secure far better deals from suppliers and contractors. The leaders insisted residents would still receive services under the banner of their local council, targeted at their local needs.

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