Shared services may have become the new normal for local authorities striving to make savings, but in Wandsworth LBC and and Richmond upon Thames RLBC, the scale is bigger than most. When the plan was devised three years ago, the aim was to save £10m a year each for the two London boroughs. ‘We have accomplished that,' says the joint chief executive, Paul Martin.

The two boroughs are comparable when it comes to pressures, but some of the service provision and expectation is very different, he says. Nevertheless, they have brought together almost all the procurement, ‘sometimes with different specifications' and much of the back office functions.