Leicestershire council 'saves £10m through e-auctions'

About £10m has been saved in four years by finding cheaper contracts for Leicestershire County Council services on the internet, the authority claimed.

The leader of the county council said by awarding its contracts to the lowest bidder via an e-auction website it had saved £9.6m of taxpayers money.

Councillor David Parsons said money would be reinvested in services for children and vulnerable adults.

The Conservative-led council is aiming to cut £79m in the next four years.

"We've achieved this by really looking at our suppliers, looking at improved contracts and taking part in things like e-auctions, where the contract is decided but then there's an e-auction between competitors as to what they can supply the contract for," Mr Parsons said.

'Sensitive areas'

He added the authority had saved £1m by sharing back office functions with Nottingham City Council. "It's quite a long, long away, but we've made big savings there," he said.

"We've saved £2m from our communications budget in Leicestershire and another £7m from management and administration by streamlining how we actually run the council."

Mr Parsons said the money saved would be used to focus on "very sensitive areas".

"We've prioritised our services for children and for vulnerable adults, and by targeting our expenditure we've had a huge impact," he said.

"Investment in children this year has meant our exam results have gone through the roof, they're the best we've ever had in Leicestershire."

The authority said although 1,000 posts could be cut in the next four years, it hoped £57m would come from efficiency savings and £5.5m from reserves to "safe guard frontline services".