What are Liverpool Direct Ltd and Enterprise Liverpool?
LIVERPOOL Direct Limited, a £340m joint venture company with BT, was set up five years ago to improve the council's customer services departments.
It has since expanded its remit into other areas of the authority including information technology, human resources and revenues and benefits.
It was spearheaded by David McElhinney, who left his job as executive director of central services to become its full-time chief executive. There is no suggestion of an impropriety in the move.
Around 800 council staff have been seconded to LDL, which has left many confused about the terms of their contract. It also runs Liverpool Direct, the city council's call-centre, which is the largest council-run call-centre in the UK and runs round the clock.
Last year the Labour group demanded an inquiry into the deal after it emerged that the BT was paid almost £1m a week.
Around £5.67m a year went on the call centre with £16.6m on IT costs and £11.34m on revenues and benefits.
But supporters say it has brought the council into the 21st century and has won praise from ministers such as Malcolm Wicks, work and pensions, who described it as a "crucial service", and Nick Raynsford, in charge of
local government, who said it is bringing "change for the better".
Enterprise won £180m contracts in Liverpool for street cleaning and highways work through its subsidiary Enterprise-Liverpool.
It was set up in April 2002 and now employs more than 1,200 people on a ten year deal.
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