The Council uses contractors who have already tendered for the type of work needed and are on an EU-complaint approved list managed by the London Housing Consortium (LHC), set up in 1966.

As a result an estimated £696,000 was saved in costs last year for the authority without the need for a standard procurement process when carrying out work on schools and Council buildings.

A total of 11,680 working hours were saved through this method in 2013/14 as the Council carried out more than £5.5m of building work.

Taxpayers were given a further boost last month when the LHC handed over a rebate of an additional £220,743.58.

This was a reward for the Council being full members of the LHC and helping to oversee the scheme which is used by authorities across the UK.

‘We have been members of this scheme since 2001 but this is the highest rebate we have ever received because we have done more work this year,‘ said Vince Probert, Lead Officer for Building Services.

He explained: ‘Using the LHC in this way is a simpler, more economical process. It means the Council is optimising resources because the jobs are pre-tendered and we can choose the most suitable contractor in terms of price and quality from an approved list.‘

On November 25 2014, Peter Hardy, Council Cabinet member for Resources, accepted, on behalf of the authority the cheque for £220,743.58 from Mij Rahman of the LHC. Also present at the presentation were Ian Boll, Matthew Hayward, Louise Dove, Phil Pearcey and Vince Probert.

Mr Hardy said: ‘In these days of severe financial restraint, it is heartening to see we are saving so much money by these kind of methods which not only keep the price down, but ensure we hire top-quality workmen to do the jobs we need.‘