Fresh concern over council’s £1.6m deal with money-saving specialists

Nicholas Thomas, local democracy reporter

A council’s spending on cost-cutting consultants has drawn further criticism, after it emerged another £700,000 will be added to the bill.

The leader of the Caerphilly council’s Plaid Cymru opposition group accused the Labour administration of wasting cash to help draw up its money-saving “transformation agenda”.

“If it was their own money, they would not be so quick to spend it,” said Cllr Lindsay Whittle.

Council leader Sean Morgan has rebuffed the criticism, arguing the money is “well spent” and will lead to bigger savings further down the line.

In August, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) found the council had spent around £924,000 so far on a deal with consultants Perago.

The council defended the outlay, but the news proved unpopular among opposition councillors, including Cllr Whittle, who leads the Plaid group.

‘Perverse’

At the time, he called the spending “frankly staggering”, and “perverse” given proposals to mothball Llancaiach Fawr and Blackwood Miners’ Institute, and shut down the Meals Direct service.

Now, Plaid has raised fresh questions over the spending on the Perago deal, finding the contract will cost £1.66 million by the time the contract ends, in March 2025.

Commenting on the total costs, Cllr Whittle told the LDRS: “I warned last month that the bill would rise further and now we know this is exactly what is happening.”

Cllr Whittle said a raft of proposed closures “seems the only so-called savings that they are suggesting”, and repeated calls for all councillors to receive a “detailed breakdown of where the money has been spent”.

He added: “People often say lottery winners waste money, but nowhere as much as the Labour cabinet on Caerphilly Council.”

Responding to those claims, a spokesperson for Caerphilly Council said “ultimately there will be a significant return on our investment over the next few years”.

“Caerphilly County Borough Council is faced with making savings in the region of £45m over the next two years – and this is in addition to the £20m that has already been identified,” the spokesperson explained.

“We cannot deliver these huge financial savings without undertaking a significant programme of transformation across all parts of the organisation.”

Working with external consultants is “not unusual” for the council and will bring “year on year” savings of around £4.2m, the spokesperson added.

Fired back

Cllr Morgan also fired back against the criticism.

“If I had to spend £1.6m once, to make £4.2m of year-on-year, recurrent savings, then I would certainly say that is a worthwhile investment,” he told the LDRS.

“Add to that, the council is also equipped to continue the transformation programme, using the lessons learned from working alongside these specialist consultants, then I would argue that this has been money well spent, that will continue to make the savings we have to make, in the future.”