Taxpayers have been saved nearly £13,000 an hour for a year, according to Surrey County Council (SCC) which says it has been "driving harder bargains" with businesses.

A SCC spokesman said that "tough negotiating" with IT businesses, building firms and energy suppliers has helped it to save £27million in the last financial year - beating its £25million target.

He said this equates to almost £12,980 an hour, or more than £216 a minute, in a 40-hour working week, which has pushed up SCC’s savings from striking better deals to £83million over the past three years. 

Councillor Denise Le Gal, SCC’s cabinet member for business services, said: "We’ll continue to focus on finding new and innovative ways of doing things more efficiently while providing excellent services to the people of Surrey."

SCC aims to reduce its annual budget by around £250million by 2016.