In a bid to save £68m, Northamptonshire County Council approved an outsourcing plan last week that could move 95% of its core staff to mutual companies over the next five years. The authority will become a much smaller organisation known as the Northamptonshire County Council Group and will commission others to provide services.

However according to the BBC, the Tory plan to set up four outside bodies to run services and cut 4,000 staff to 150, has met criticism from the opposition. Labour spokesman Mick Scrimshaw was reported to say that council services should be public and private provision was not always best. This follows on from recent comments made by Jon Cruddas, Ed Miliband’s top policy chief, who condemned outsourcing saying that the public sector should no longer allocate outsourcing contracts to firms that prioritise making money over ‘social purpose’.

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