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Kent Commercial Services (KCS) is the "trading arm" of
KCC. It provides goods and services on behalf of Kent County
Council either directly through its 800-900 employees or by
sub-contracting to other companies.
KCS mostly supplies other public sector organisations through
several
KCS businesses. KCC also has two private businesses:
Kent Top
Temps Ltd (link opens in a new window) which includes Kent Top
Travel, and Kent County Facilities Ltd, which trades under the name
InsideOut. These KCC businesses trade with the private sector. KCS
is completely self-funding across all its activities, receiving no
budget from KCC.
KCC spends £860 million a year providing goods and services to
its 1.4 million residents, from early years' education to care for
older and vulnerable adults. £834 million of this, some 97%, goes
directly to private companies or the voluntary sector. This means
that 85% of our adult care provision, 100% of our highways work,
94% of our transport services and almost 100% of our property
services, to name a few, are provided externally. A further 2% is
brokered with external companies via KCS and just 1% is provided
directly by KCS businesses.
The facts are clear
Many of the services that are run by KCS businesses are
sub-contracted to local companies employing local people. And they
don't just provide services to the County Council; they supply to
authorities and organisations all around the country, providing
business for Kent and creating much needed employment.
Last year KCS businesses and KCC private businesses combined
made a profit of approximately £5million which was put straight
back into KCC's budget. This is the equivalent of almost 1% that we
don't have to add onto our council tax bills. A further £2million
savings for the council are delivered by KCS businesses compared
with costs for goods and services before KCS entered the
market.
KCC has always been open and transparent about its commercial
activities.
Read our
questions and answers on KCS to answer any further queries you
may have.
Read a comprehensive
response to completely unfounded claims that KCS businesses and
KCC private businesses are acting improperly.
Read the draft annual business plan 2008/09 for KCS available to
access from the webpage for the
Cabinet
meeting on 14 April 2008. The plan is agreed and monitored by
KCC's Cabinet.
KCC files all the appropriate paper work for its private
businesses at Companies House, just like any other small company,
and you can request to view specific business information by
contacting Companies House (link opens in a new
window).
Coming soon
We will soon be providing online, information about how you can
do business with the council through Kent Commercial Services or by
tendering for council contracts. |