£90,000 spent on consultants for shake-up of county boundary comes under fire

A CONSULTANCY firm has been paid £90,000 to work on a huge Nottinghamshire boundary shake-up that is supposed to save money, in what one leader has dubbed a "scandal".

- By OLIVER PRIDMORE

Councils across Nottinghamshire are preparing for the biggest change to local government in 50 years.

PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was employed to work on what it could mean for the future of the county's political map.

The firm's work has primarily involved speaking with the leaders of all nine Nottinghamshire councils and producing a presentation for them.

The Post has confirmed through a Freedom of Information Request that PwC has been paid £87,398 excluding VAT for its work so far.

The firm is expected to continue working in Nottinghamshire ahead of the next deadline in November for options to be drawn up on the future of councils.

The firm has declined to comment on its fee, but Jason Zadrozny, Ashfield District Council's leader on behalf of the Ashfield Independents and one of those involved in the shake-up talks, said: "I think they are a very good organisation, but I think the work they've done so far, I could have done on ChatGPT during the commercial breaks of Coronation Street.

"It's absolute kindergarten stuff. I think it's an absolute scandal that we're wasting this money.

"What the government has done is to make big conglomerates like PwC even more profitable. PwC made it very clear to us that they have the ear of ministers, so we have to have them as part of the process. It's mind-boggling to me."