Libraries among £5m part-privatisation (Cornwall, UK)

Cornwall Council has taken "a leap of faith" into the part-privatisation of key services at a landmark meeting. The council will now ask two multinational companies to bid for a contract worth hundreds of millions of pounds to jointly run services such as libraries, payroll, benefit payments and one-stop shops. Council chiefs are looking to get other public-sector organisations signed up to the project, but the meeting heard that major partners such as the Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust had not yet committed to the deal. Cornwall Council claims the project – known as shared services – will create 500 jobs and produce savings of £5 million in the first two years