10/10/05 - Swindon Conservative Promise On Value For Money

MOST residents might not care who the council buys its pens and paper from. But if it starts affecting council tax or the quality of services, that may change.

And that is what Swindon Council says pledge five is all about ­ saving money in basic ways like buying pens from one central supplier and collecting tax on time so it can be spent on things people care about.

Nick Martin (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms) admitted it was standard work.

"If you talk to residents they will say `why are you not doing it anyway?'," he said.

"We inherited Swindon Council last year. For 25 years the previous administration wasn't delivering promise five. We discovered and were astonished that there wasn't any professional purchasing system.

"We have suppliers providing us with £115m worth of goods. Swindon Services was probably the best but who they bought stationery from was completely different to who the Civic Offices did.

"There was no using the council's purchasing power to get discounts. The idea is to buy cheaper for the benefit of the residents of Swindon. It just wasn't being done."

A new corporate procurement department was created in June this year after the council advertised for procurement specialists.

The department has already set up a new process for approving large contracts.

"This essentially means officers must take a professional business case approach towards high value spends," said corporate procurement manager Steve Dutton.

"This then is scrutinised by members and officers at various at stages throughout the project. An example project would be the new library."

The department has set up an online stationery ordering contact with Office Depot to replace the 15 stationery contracts that were in place.

It has also developed a five-year procurement strategy and is working with other local authorities to save money.

Instead of having 8,000 suppliers of goods the council wants to have less than 2,000.

The procurement team has been told to save £750,000 in 2005/6 and £1m next year.

But the administration is also looking at other areas to save money in the same way.

"In 2010, we are looking to try to chisel £2m out of social services but just by being cleverer with our buying," said Coun Martin.

"It is not about cuts in social services, it is about predicting buying.

"A lot of the packages are bought one by one. We need to look at what we are buying and say we have got so many people with this kind of need so we buy that many at once.

"At the moment individual officers are placing individual orders for services. We need to consolidate and forward plan."

The authority is also looking to improve its council tax collection so that 98 per cent ­ rather than the current 95.5 per cent ­ is collected in-year.

But what will happen to all the savings?

"This money will be almost immediately reinvested," said Coun Martin.

"The sort of spending pressures we are looking at are massive. We are also expecting the Government to give us less money.

"And we are also trying to rebuild the town centre, build a library, improve parks and restore Lydiard Park ­ there are lots of things we are trying to do for people.

"The real challenge is to try not to cripple people with council tax so we have got to find ways to save money and make sure services are good."

50 pledges

Pledge five: We will buy goods and services more efficiently to help us to save money. Through good financial management we will make savings of £11m across the council and collect 98 per cent of council tax in-year.

SWINDON Council has made 50 pledges to the people of Swindon, promising to meet them by 2010.

Each week the Swindon Advertiser will look at a different pledge, studying the reasons behind the promise being made and assessing the progress the council has made.

The first 15 pledges centre around `your council' itself and the way it serves Swindon.

Pledges 16 to 28 focus on `your culture, leisure and learning' with targets including improving school exam results and building a library .

Pledges 29 to 34 cover social service issues under the heading `your children, your family - the people who matter'.

Pledges 35 to 44 are about `your town', looking at town centre regeneration and improving other areas of the town.

Pledges 45 to 50 are about `your communities', covering crime and recycling.

How to save £11m

A report from consultants Cap Gemini identified £10.9m of potential savings over the next four years. They were:

£2.1m ­ procurement.

£1.5m ­ central services such as IT, finance, human resources.

£2.7m ­ front office ­ consolidating how the council deals with the public, through setting up the first stop shop and call centre.

£1.2m ­ flattening management structures.

£1m ­ chasing debts more effectively.

£1.9m ­ social services ­ by predicting what services will be needed and ordering them in advance

£0.5m ­ transport ­ less school buses may be needed when the new schools are built in Swindon, subsidies to Thamesdown Transport might be cut and the number of taxi firms used will be looked at.

Cllr Justin Tomlinson, North Swindon Conservative Parliamentaty Spokesman, "Council Tax rocked 42% in just 3 years under the previous failing Labour administration.  Residents threw them out of office, no longer prepared to see money wasted.  This is a key promise to deliver value for money, and already these effeciency savings have helped stamp down Council, the least we the local residents deserve."