OXFORD City Council is paving the way to start offering more of its services commercially to try to generate extra cash.

Under new proposals set to go to its executive board later this month, extra services such as tree felling and servicing boilers could be offered in competition to private contractors, while the council could bid for contracts from other public bodies.

It already carries out procurement work and legal services for other district councils in the county.

Among plans suggested are offering gas servicing and electrical testing to private landlords by council staff who already carry out the work in the city’s council houses.

The council has to make about £9m in cuts and savings over the next four years.

Leader Bob Price said he believed the council could be commercially competitive.

Mr Price said: “We are in the position where the freedom of local authorities to do this is growing.

“We are already doing a certain amount of this in areas we have got expert people, for example in legal work.

“There are a range of areas that have potential, such as procurement or personnel service, but also big areas like housing, leisure, and community support.”

If customers are found, more staff could be taken on to run them, he added.

He added: “We would have to have a willing customer and a business plan and good estimates in terms of income.

“We would not want to get in the position of taking on extra staff and not have the income to support them.”

During the tendering process for the council’s waste services last autumn, the council found its own in-house service was more competitive than private contractors.

Mr Price said there were no immediate plans to extend its commercial operations, but some additional ventures may be explored next financial year.

And he said that Oxford residents would not face new charges for services.

“We do not have any plans at the moment to charge for anything more than we do already,” he said.

But the council has ruled out setting up its own ‘arm’s length’ trading company, which is being done by other councils including Birmingham and Kent.

Under the Oxford proposals, a new framework would be set up to allow greater cross-boundary work, supply of goods to other local authorities, and charging for extra services.

The report, set to be discussed by a scrutiny committee on Monday, says: “No specific sum has been placed in the budget to be attained through trading. However, the expectation clearly exists.”

Lib Dem leader Stephen Brown said: “I see this as very much dipping a toe in the water to try to rationalise, formalise and bringing in proper accountability procedures so any trading operations do not become a potential liability.

“If it transpires that the council has some other big generation of income through charging for services, that is a completely different matter that will come through the budget process.”