Cash-strapped Dudley Council defends spending £223,000 on consultants in four months
Despite strict spending controls, Dudley Council coughed-up nearly a quarter of a million pounds on four agency staff in just four months.
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The authority is currently battling to save £37 million in three years to get its finances back on track and has introduced rules limiting spending on services it is not required by law to provide.
Restrictions started in October but, by the end of January, the bill for four temporary consultants working on regeneration and estates was an eye-watering £223,518.
Balvinder Heran, deputy chief executive of Dudley Council, said: “This relates to specialist professionals we are using to work on our important regeneration and estates strategy development programmes.
“Part of their work is to develop and deliver the projects within the levelling up and longer towns fund bids the council was successful in securing over the last 12 months.”