OXON: Back office and school support services worth £25m could be outsourced to private firms.

The council’s cabinet last night agreed to begin an investigation into whether money could be saved by paying external companies to perform some IT, school, HR and finance services on the council’s behalf.

Council deputy leader Rodney Rose said: “We’re not making any decisions on savings now, all we’re doing is perhaps going on a fishing trip to find out what makes sense.”