BINMEN and builders helped to earn £1.3million for Oxford's taxpayers last year, according to a newly released report.

Oxford Direct Services, a company wholly-owned by the city council, runs waste services, street sweeping, building and engineering works around the city.

Last week, it released an annual report for its first year of trading (2018/19), which said £1.3 million of profit from its work would be given back to the city council, its only shareholder.

While the company's main work is to carry out public services, but it is also able to turn a profit by selling the work of its staff to other organisations, including Oxford University, Brookes, and the county council.

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This work includes taking away commercial waste and maintenance on vehicles and buildings.

The company's managing director, Simon Howick, said: "Our first Economic Impact Assessment highlights that a great deal has been achieved in our inaugural year, and we can confidently say we are a ‘doing good’ business."

ODS said it paid its staff a total of £22.5 million in the 2018/19 year, or roughly £32,000 for every worker if it was divided equally between all 700.

Oxford Mail:

Simon Howick.

Mr Howick said the average salary was around £28,000, and none of the company's employees were paid below the Oxford living wage, which was £9.69 an hour in 2018/19 and is currently £10.02 an hour.

According to the report, staff spending their wages has helped to contribute £6 million to the Oxford economy, as well as a further £3 million to the Oxfordshire economy.

The company plans to do more work for Oxfordshire County Council in the future, including on local highways, to bring in more money.

It also runs the city council's fleet of 330 vehicles, including bin lorries and road sweepers, 20 of which are electric vehicles.

ODS aims to follow the city council's green agenda by doubling the number of electric vehicles it has by by the end of the 2020/21 financial year.

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Nigel Chapman, Oxford City Council's cabinet member for customer focused services said the profit turned by ODS was part of an 'Oxford Model' for services, which allowed the council to continue investing in the city.

Mr Chapman said: "[ODS] has allowed us to retain and increase investment in communities at a time when many other local authorities are being forced to reduce their expenditure after outsourcing services."

Oxford Direct Services is a special kind of company called a Local Authority Trading Company.

Oxford City Council owns another LATC called Oxford City Housing.

This is a commercial property company which builds homes around the city, including social housing.

In 2012, Oxford Direct Services was a department of the city council.

Between then and 2018, it gradually started to operate different services as a a private company, owned by the council.