A London council approved spending £350,000 on iPhones for officials to make them “more efficient”.
Labour-run Brent bought iPhone 4 and 4s models, but also spent £42,500 on the top-of-the-range iPhone 5s. The figures were released to a local newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act.
Brent, which must cut £100 million from its budgets, earlier spent £46,000 on iPads for its 63 councillors and also 14 officers.
Sujata Aurora, of campaign group Brent Fightback, said: “This week alone the council approved almost £18 million worth of cuts. To then spend such a vast amount on mobile phones suggests it has a warped sense of priorities.”
Council leader Muhammed Butt said using iPhones would save the council £1 million over five years through flexible working and by making its mobile phone contracts more efficient.
