COUNCILS have launched a major drive to share more work with each other as the financial squeeze looks set to tighten.

City of York Council has been holding intensive discussions with organisations such as North Yorkshire County Council and NSH York and North Yorkshire about sharing a range of back office functions, such as human resources, legal services and IT.

They have also been examining the increased use of shared procurement, for example in buying salt for highways departments.

York council leader Andrew Waller warned today: “We have been talking about these things for years, but the days of just talking about it are over. We need to do it.”

The authorities are waiting to see how they will be affected as the new Government presses ahead with £6 billion of cuts in public spending this year.

York said last autumn it wanted to save £15 million over three years through a massive overhaul of budgets, cuts in spending and the shedding of jobs.

Kersten England, the authority’s chief executive, said today the authority now wanted to make bigger savings than that, and was on track to deliver £5.7 million of savings this year alone. But she reiterated the pledge she made last year to try her utmost to avoid compulsory redundancies and use natural wastage whenever possible instead.

County council assistant chief executive Gary Fielding said North Yorkshire had been talking to a range of other organisations as well as York, including district councils, the primary care trust, fire and police and fire services, about ways of making savings by sharing work.

He said there were growing concerns about public sector finances, and it was estimated the county needed to make a total of £40 million of savings over the next two years.