Northumberland County Council introduces salary sacrifice

Northumberland County Council has introduced a salary sacrifice car scheme for up to 6,000 staff with Tusker.

The new ‘Smart Flexible Car Scheme’ joins other flexible benefits that the council offers to employees, including Smart training, Smart parking and Smart subscriptions.

The council will also be encouraging employees who qualify for cash allowances under an existing company car lease scheme or who receive mileage allowances to look at the benefits of the new salary sacrifice car scheme.

Northumberland County Council was able to take advantage of a Pan Government Collaborative Framework Agreement, first established last year by North Yorkshire County Council, in association with Tusker’s salary sacrifice car scheme, SalarySacrifice4Cars (SS4C).

This provided Northumberland with all the details of the scheme it required without having to go out to the market via a tender exercise, saving it valuable time, money and resources.

A Northumberland County Council spokesman said: “Basically, we wanted to support our employees in these difficult and challenging economic times and provide them with a wider choice of flexible benefits within the council’s portfolio of Smart Flexible Benefits, while at the same time encouraging staff to choose lower emitting cars and reduce their carbon footprint.”