Liverpool City Council has officially ended its contract with Amey and taken its highways services back in-house.
The council estimates this will save £750,000, which will be reinvested into repairing potholes and new alleygates. It has already brought parks services, street cleansing, bin collections, IT and HR and payroll services all back in house.
Cllr Ann O’Byrne, deputy mayor of Liverpool, said: ‘We have seen with other services such as street cleansing and refuse collections that insourcing can deliver savings which can be reinvested to make our money go even further.
‘Anyone who travels by car or bike through Liverpool knows the city has a pothole issue and the council is doing all it can. Unfortunately this issue is a double whammy because while we are investing £93m in repairs the Government are putting in just £18m.’
The contract began in 2013 and was due to run until 2022.The council announced the insourcing move last November as part of a drive to deliver £90m of savings over three years in the face of Government cuts.
At the time of the original announcement, Amey said that it had come to a mutual agreement with the council to end the contract early after both sides raised concerns about the sustainability of the contract.
This article first appeared on www.localgov.co.uk.