The £270 million gamble - outsourcing at Barnet Council

Today the OJEU notice has been published, kicking off the outsourcing process for the Development & Regulatory Services. In the Notice it states that value of the contract will be between £270 million and £290 million excluding VAT over a 10 year contract with an option to extend for a further five years. That seems to be a huge sum to gamble based on a business case which is flimsy in the extreme. The undue haste of this project is amazing. Interested parties will be invited to a bidder briefing day on 5 April. This seems exceptionally short notice and might suggest that all the potentially bidders have already been put on alert. All this and the business case still hasn't been signed off by the Cabinet Resources Committee. I am utterly shocked at the way the whole process is being driven through with such huge sums of money involved. Every single resident of Barnet should be very very worried and asking their councillors some detailed questions about the whole basis for this high risk project.