There are only two authoritative sources of information on local government – The MJ and Radio 4.

So it was interesting to listen to a recent File on 4 programme (Tuesday March 4 if you want to listen on I Player). Ostensibly about the role of the Big Accountancy Firms in local government it could perhaps have been sub-titled ‘getting a grip on grit'

To explain - the programme focused on the large scale outsourcing contracts in Birmingham worth billions to the companies

It interviewed two perplexed residents who simply wanted a grit bin on their road (and they made a good case).

Simple? Well actually no - the terms of one of the contracts meant that the cost to the council would be £4,500.

As the down-to-earth Brummie asked – I can buy a grit bin on-line for less than £200 and put the grit in myself.

A local councillor was equally forthright in admitting that he now had no influence or control over local services in his ward. It was a genuine counsel of despair.

Now I understand that outsourcing can provide considerable benefits and provide a necessary cost pressure to reduce costs to council and Private Finance Initiatives were helpful when interest rates were high. 

But 25-year contracts which prevent collaboration with other councils/public sector organisations and lock in work practices and procedures (the infamous £100 to change a light bulb) belong to a different age when the money tap still flowed in the public sector.