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back to article London could face cuts for not sharing services

The London Assembly's budget and performance committee has been told that police, fire and transport authorities that do not share back office services may have their budgets cut. Police, fire and transport organisations that resist sharing services are frustrating progress on Boris Johnson's plans to save £300m annually by …

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  1. JimC

    Shared Back Office Services

    So much the same principle as, say, regional fire control centres?

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  2. Flocke Kroes Silver badge

    Cutting the budget is pointless

    The head bean counters will cut the pay of the lowest paid staff or fire some of them. Then they will give themselves a bonus for saving money. What you do is tell the three head bean counters to vote on which of them gets fired. If it is a tie, fire all three. Otherwise, with the most obstructive bean counter out the way, the other two can work together to save money. If they don't, fire both of them next year.

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  3. Nat Pryce
    Facepalm

    John Seddon would have a few things to say about that...

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/Systems-Thinking-Public-Sector-Regime/dp/0955008182

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  4. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    What it means when they say ...

    What is said:

    The committee has previously questioned whether the targets for such high savings are realistic and warned that they could be difficult to achieve

    What is meant:

    Uh-huh baby. There ain't no way we are going to aim to make the cuts you want. We will chance that the coalition will not be re-elected next time and delay decisions and decision making accordingly.

    Even if the coalition IS re-elected you will have to impose cuts to make use make the reductions further endangering chances of coalition being returned to power.

    What it is: hands off our money. It took us years to get so overstaffed that we could afford to give ourselves huge wages, salaries and employment packages. And that does not, never will, imply that we were or are any good at our job anyway - so there!

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    1. Shane Orahilly
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Shurely shome mishtake

      The coalition don't control the office of the Mayor of London. You really think Labour (assuming Millibland stood a remote chance of being electable) would throw all that extra cash at London at the risk of Northern votes? Making life easier for Boris is unlikely to be part of their manifesto, or anyone else's.

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      1. Elmer Phud
        Reply Icon

        Payback

        They have finally realised how much money Brian Coleman has spent on taxis.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Shared services or budget cuts

    If shared services are implemented as well for councils as they have been for the research councils, budget cuts might be a better choice. See e.g. http://www.researchresearch.com/index.php?option=com_news&template=rr_2col&view=article&articleId=990463

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  6. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Thumb Up

    A good idea in *theory*

    But as far as I can see.

    Takes *lots* of prep work. Anyone who listened to the podcast on the Royal Mails migration to a cloud. 8 weeks to do, c2 *years* to get it prepared *properly*.

    Unclear if senior management staff understand their jobs well enough to do it.

    My gut feeling is they start by harmonising various features of each services back offices. I'd guess things like pay rates, holiday allowance start date etc.

    I'm with Bozzer on this. But Flocke Kroes (Nellie's boy?) probably has the real outcome about right.

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  7. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Stop

    Come back Ken Livingsone

    All is forgiven.

    Well...

    No, not quite all :)

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