For a third year running, Mid Suffolk District Council has proven that they are top of the league when it comes to making efficiency savings and providing value for money for its customers – the residents of Mid Suffolk.

In 2004, Central Government asked all councils in England to make savings of up to two and a half per cent, each year, until 2007/08.

In 2004, Mid Suffolk District Council set a target of £635,475 in savings to be made by the end of the three year period. The council has actually achieved savings of £5,391,981 in three years; beating the target set by government more than eight times over.

Andrew Good, Chief Executive of Mid Suffolk District Council said: “This is fantastic news for the residents of Mid Suffolk and is a credit to everyone at Mid Suffolk District Council. This huge saving would not have been possible without the partnership that we ventured into with Suffolk County Council and BT to create Customer Service Direct (CSD); an organisation which now enables residents of Mid Suffolk to phone one telephone number to reach all council-run services. All at a time when our income from grants from Central Government has failed to keep up with the cost rise resulting from inflation.”

He continued; “The savings that we have achieved just re-enforces the reason why Mid Suffolk District Council is supporting the case for a single authority covering the whole of Suffolk. All residents can then deal with one, efficient council for all council-run services cutting out waste and duplication in overheads” 

CSD is not the only partnership that Mid Suffolk District Council is involved with. Others include the joint venture with Babergh District Council and SERCO for waste collection, which saved the council £339,270 last year.

In the area of Housing, Mid Suffolk District Council saved over £50,000 by outsourcing the supply of materials for maintenance and increased income by £29,901 as a result of improving the turnaround times for vacant council houses.

Cllr Derrick Haley, portfolio holder for finance and resources said; “Our administration has stabilised the council’s finances in a very challenging period. We positively look to work with others to reduce our costs and we are delighted to again be top of the league.”

Mid Suffolk District Council saved £2,216,400 in 2007/8 alone, our best performance of the three periods, and this was after the council had been highlighted as the best performing English district when figures were released after the first two years.

When comparing the predicted efficiencies for 2007/08 against the 2.5% of the 2004/05 baseline target, Mid Suffolk was significantly the best performer of all English district councils, both when using the figures for total and cashable efficiencies*.

Within this league, Babergh District Council was the only other Suffolk district/borough in the top 30 – they appear at number 25.

-ENDS-

Media contact:

Vicky Smy, Senior Communications Officer, telephone: 01449 724850, email: vicky.smy@midsuffolk.gov.uk