Southampton City Council to pay £9 million for business consultants to help deliver cost-saving plan
The authority is looking to save £30 million a year for the next few years
A cash-strapped council has approved paying business management consultants £9million to help deliver a major cost-saving plan.
Labour-run Southampton City Council will pay Newton Europe Ltd the seven-figure sum to come onboard as the transformation programme implementation partner.
The firm’s work will mainly focus on adults and health, children’s services, schools and special educational needs and disabilities, but it will also provide support with the wider programme’s strategic delivery.
The appointment, which could run for four years, was signed off at a council meeting on Wednesday, September 18, despite Conservative, Liberal Democrat and Green Party councillors voting against.
Debate before the vote on the matter lasted around 40 minutes with the press and public excluded due to discussions of a confidential appendix report.
Prior to this council leader Cllr Lorna Fielker said Newton had a proven track record, referencing savings delivered at other local authorities including Derbyshire and Lewisham.
“Where I have reassurance in this arrangement is the Newton team are embedded into the organisation,” Cllr Fielker said.
“They sit alongside our people transferring skills and knowledge. They don’t do what many consultants do, which is submit a report and tell you to get on with it and scarper out of the door.”
She said they would be with the council for as long as it takes to complete the work to achieve the authority’s outcomes and savings targets.
“We as an administration have ambitions for Southampton,” Cllr Fielker added.
“We want to be a thriving city where people can live their best lives. In order to do that we need to be as effective and as efficient as possible. The work we do with Newton will enable us to do that.”
The work Newton will be involved with is aiming to deliver recurring savings of £30million per year, a report said.
Overall, the transformation programme contains 28 separate projects, which are estimated to deliver £32.05million of savings in 2025/26, increasing to £41.6million in 2028/29.
Cllr Peter Baillie told the Local Democracy Reporting Service after the meeting that the Conservative group had a number of concerns, including a lack of communication from the Labour administration.
“We have had no briefings at all on this,” Cllr Baillie said. ”There are no details in the report.
“It is almost a question of the other way round. Why should we support it?
“We don’t know anything about it. They won’t tell us anything about it.
“There is no detail about how the money is going to be saved. No detail about what jobs are going to be lost.
“The worry is good staff are going to jump because they are concerned about it.”
Cllr Richard Blackman said the Liberal Democrat group he leads voted against the recommendations as the council “had not really gone out to market to find other alternatives”.
He told the LDRS: “I think it was really to do with there was only one option presented. That was the key reason (for not supporting the appointment).
“We are talking substantial sums of money so trying to get best value for Southampton. I think it wasn’t clear from what was presented to us.”
Green Party councillor Katherine Barbour said the cost of the work being done by Newton was “eyewatering”.
In a statement, she said: “It will be interesting to see if this approach brings the results that the city needs.”