Row over cancellation of £6.3m council contract

A senior Reform UK councillor said he cancelled a multi-million pound contract because it was "a waste of money", but an opposition leader accused him of "political grandstanding".

Norfolk County Council previously agreed a deal with consultancy firm Inner Circle to help with controversial plans to reorganise local government.

But the Reform deputy council leader Robin Hunter-Clarke, whose party took control of the authority in May, argued the deal – said to be worth up to £6.3m - was poor value.

Conservative Kay Mason Billig, the council's former leader, said the contract had been agreed because staff needed extra support with "an exceptionally complicated reorganisation".

The contract with Inner Circle – whose website says the firm is focused on supporting the public sector "navigate complex challenges" - was agreed a few weeks before this year's local elections took place.

With Norfolk's county and seven district councils due to be scrapped and replaced by three unitary authorities, the agreement was signed in April by then-chief executive Tom McCabe, who quit the council in June.

A council report said the authorities needed to "access relevant experience and expertise" during the process, and would share costs for the consultants.

It also said the total value of the contract was worth up to £5m.

However, Hunter-Clarke insisted the maximum cost was up to £6.3m and claimed the county council was "solely liable" for the deal.

"It should never have been signed," he said.

"I asked officers if it was value for money, and essentially, it was agreed between me and senior officers, it wasn't value for money."

Reform oppose local government reorganisation (LGR), and earlier this summer Hunter-Clarke told the government the council would take legal action against the plan.

He said there was no penalty clause for ending the consultants' contract early – although the council would be liable for any work already completed.

"If we need expertise from outside, we'll contract on a normal basis but not write a blank cheque," he added.

But the district councils - including Norwich, Great Yarmouth and West Norfolk - said they wanted "urgent answers" from Hunter-Clarke.

In a joint statement, they said they had put £3.5m towards LGR which had been matched by the county council, with a further £2.7m coming from the government.

They added that they had not been consulted about the cancellation of the contract "intended to support all eight Norfolk authorities".

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The deal was agreed while Mason Billig was still council leader.

She said the move was "political grandstanding dressed up as financial responsibility" and that outside consultants were necessary as council staff were already "under enormous pressure".

"They cannot simply abandon their day jobs to manage an exceptionally complicated reorganisation without specialist support. Diverting them from frontline services could have serious consequences," she warned.

A spokesman for Inner Circle said the company was proud of its work and it respected "the political decision by Norfolk County Council and [we] wish them all the best with their onward journey."

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