The central government should force the local authorities to reduce the nonsensical pay packages and bonuses that Directorate level management receive.

Then tease out several levels of middle management. Most local authorities have become top heavy with management. It wasn't so long ago that mere admin staff were doing the tasks that now officers and managers do. We were public facing, we managed budgets, we collected data, produced reports and analysed statistics, we composed newsletters, information documents, presentations and websites. Now all these tasks are done by specialist individuals and teams who are paid much more than a band 2 or 3 or even 4 salary commands.

Those same few admin also shopped around for best price on goods and services before managers decided they would enter into expensive contracts with

Capita for recruitment ( they command £30.00 a day admin fee for temporary workers - heaven knows what they charge for recruiting a permanent post)
Marketplace and Banner for procurement (Banner charges more than twice for core items than we can buy them on Amazon or at Maplin)
INNTEL for all travel bookings (£5.50 admin fee for every booking)

list goes on but i have lost interest.

I am now awaiting the centralisation of my admin post which will be redefined at a lower grade and for which I will have to apply. Then when we are reduced and regraded, the council will outsource us (sell us to the lowest bidder) which means I will not be working at anything like the same conditions. A nearly non existent pension will disappear altogether.

The tales I could tell about waste and money poorly spent would make your toes curl.