Two district councils in the east of England have set up a shared service for front and back office functions which they are offering to other public authorities.

East Lindsey and South Holland have created a limited company named Compass Point to handle HR, finance, payroll, IT support, revenues and benefits and customer services, operating from two centres in Manby and Spalding.

The joint venture is owned by the two councils, with shareholdings reflecting the size of their services and investment at 63% for East Lindsey and 37% for South Holland, although they have equal voting rights with three members each on the governing board.

Nigel Howell, chief executive of East Lindsey, told GGC: "We're offering two sets of services. There's the traditional outsourced services where we might tender for work, or other authorities might invest and become new partners in the company.

"We are relatively young but we've had interest from a number of organisations already, mostly in potentially becoming partners. This is the most novel aspect of what we've done."