What is the problem we are trying to solve?

Waste collection is one of the largest spend categories in local government, with over £4 billion spent per annum in England alone. The service is also one of the most politically sensitive which presents a dichotomy for councils “can we improve the service to the tax payer, whilst reducing the ever increasing cost?”

The challenges faced by the public sector as it enters the Comprehensive Spending Review 2011 period present significant difficulties for many local authorities. Volumes of waste appear in recent years to be stabilising, but, the unit cost of waste collection is increasing and a combination of EU targets, landfill tax increases and lack of capacity means that disposal costs are also escalating. Innovative methods of procurement, and service delivery are required if local authorities are to achieve the required efficiency savings while improving service delivery, quality, standards and performance.

The iESE Commercial Relationship Programme

IESE have been successful in helping suppliers to reduce the cost of various goods and services and are now seeking to use the skills developed from this experience, together with specialist knowledge of the waste market to do the same for Waste Collection. The IESE Waste Commercial Relationship Programme is an approach to reduce costs whilst maintaining or improving the service from an existing supplier. By working with suppliers in other areas of expenditure we have been able to increase the efficiency of the service such that suppliers can charge up to 11% less whilst retaining the same quality of service. As a result of this initiative we are targeting savings of between 5 and 10% on existing contracts.

How will we do it

The approach will be tailored to each individual supplier, but typically involves the analysis of the relationship between the buying and supplying organisations in order to identify scope for greater efficiencies.

This is of course a two way process, which allows the supplier to assess the ability of a buying organisation, and play an active role in identifying improvement opportunities.

We recognise that it is of paramount importance that every local authority who commits to this programme is happy with the approach being adopted and willing to delegate the commercial negotiations to IESE. We will ensure that all parties to the programme are fully briefed and updated at regular intervals.

For more information contact David.greenfield@southeastiep.gov.uk or us the book a call button in the bar below and we will call you back