Fifteen-year deal covers regeneration programme

Rochdale Council has awarded a £200m outsourcing deal to suppliers Agilisys and Mouchel Parkman.

The two companies will take on responsibility for much of Rochdale's regeneration over the next 15 years, and will transfer of hundreds of council staff.

Council services including IT, highways and engineering, property management and payroll will all being run through the partnership, says Allen Brett, leader of Rochdale Council.

'There will be more investment in a customer contact centre to improve the service to people telephoning the council, plus more for new technology and in systems to improve services than we could have provided on our own,' he said.

A new company, Impact Partnership, has been created by the contractors to fulfil the agreement, which comes into effect on the 1st April.

The council is promising more than 1,300 new jobs will be created by the two contractors during the lifetime of the contract.