Aberdeen council leaders won’t rule out more outsourcing in bid to save £250m

Aberdeen council leaders have refused to rule out outsourcing services.

The authority is aiming to trim around £250 million from its budget in five years as part of a massive restructure and has already proposed cutting 370 jobs through voluntary and early redundancy.

Yesterday members of the strategic commissioning committee clashed when the opposition SNP group proposed a ban on any council services being outsourced in the future.

Group leader Stephen Flynn said: “I believe we now have the option to draw a line in the sand and tell our staff there will be no more outsourcing of services.”

But Aberdeen Labour’s Sarah Duncan told members she was “not ideological” about the issue – pointing out that services such as road repairs and cleaning were already often carried out by contractors.

The SNP amendment was defeated by six votes to three.

Article source: https://www.eveningexpress.co.uk/fp/news/local/outsourcing-could-be-used-to-make-savings/