Barnet LBC has named business services giant Capita as its preferred bidder to take over the running of its back office services in a 10-year deal worth £320m.

If a council cabinet meeting on 6 December approves the proposals, Capita would be responsible for a range of services including the borough's call centre, payroll, IT and HR services, corporate procurement and estate management.

Barnet hopes to generate £125m efficiency savings over the course of the contract, which would see 514 posts, or 15% of the council's total staff transfer to work for Capita.  Savings from core services over the duration of the contract are estimated at £70m, procurement savings at £47m and £8.4m from council tax and debt collections.

Capita has also promised to invest £8m in up front costs to give Barnet's residents a single ‘Amazon' style online account to access a wide variety of council services

Cllr Richard Cornelius, leader of Barnet LBC said in his view the authority is ‘18 months ahead of the game' with the deal – which accounts for 11% of the borough's annual spending.

‘The bottom line is that this will give us £120m to spend on public services which we would not otherwise have.  The alternative to the contract we are proposing is to make much bigger cuts in frontline services and jobs over the next couple of years,' Cllr Cornelius added.

In response, leader of the Barnet's Labour group, Cllr Alison Moore branded the proposals ‘a risky gamble' which effectively ties the provision of back officer services for two or even three electoral cycles.

‘The business case has not been properly made and there has been very little scrutiny allowed of the business plan – if this contract does not deliver it could end up causing real misery for local people,' added Cllr Moore.