INTRODUCTIONIn the North West Region of England, innovative councils have found ways to deliver better services and best value at reasonable costs through a variety of ways, including streamlining their procurement processes, working in partnership, pooling buying power, establishing partnerships and framework agreements with the private sector, building internal capacity and capability, using current stock and assets to catalyse community regeneration, reconfiguring and modernizing operational portfolios, raising capital through asset sales (for example, non-operational properties) and co-locating services in shared multi-service centers (ConEx, 2007)
