A new commercial chief is being brought in to help Dudley Council save millions of pounds from the way it buys goods and services.

The council is looking to transform its procurement processes in a bid to achieve five per cent savings. This would equate to £15 million savings across all council expenditure.

As part of the savings drive the council is looking to bring in a new chief officer, salaried around £90,000, to help unlock potential savings of millions of pounds.

The council’s cabinet is being asked to approve the move at a meeting on March 21. If approved, the person taking on the new role will be responsible for ensuring the council maximises its value for money when buying in goods and services as well as bringing money into the authority to make it more self sufficient.

The appointment comes on the back of a recommendation from the Local Government Association which said the council needed to relook at the way it deals with contracts and commissioning. It was also flagged up in a recent internal review at the council. Councillor Patrick Harley, leader of the council, said:

“This is a very exciting and important move for us as we look to make this authority more commercially savvy and efficient than ever before. The person coming in will specifically be tasked with making significant savings.

We are around 90 per cent self sufficient, which means we rely less on government subsidy, but this appointment is about closing that gap even further. The people who benefit from that in the long run are the tax-payers of this borough and that has to be welcome news.”

One of the first tasks for the new appointment will be to oversee a comprehensive review of all traded services at the council and identify ways to make the council more commercial and bring more money into the authority.