Scottish bank to pay ?100m for Spring contractors

Spring Group has won a ?100m contract from a top UK bank to supply IT contract staff for three years.
The UK's largest IT recruitment specialist is to use its national network to provide the bank, rumoured to be the Royal Bank of Scotland, with IT contractors for its extensive network of subsidiaries.
Asked if it were the bank in question, a Royal Bank spokesman went away to consult his colleagues and returned to say that the bank's response was 'no comment'.
The contract will be overseen by a programme team consisting of Spring executives and bank officials.
Richard Barfield, CEO of Spring, said: "Before, the bank had a number of preferred suppliers. Now it has settled down to one; more efficient service. It will no longer have to go through proposals from three or four suppliers."
Late last year, Best International, which is part of the Spring Group, won a ?50m BPO contract from the Prudential, which shares an office block with the Royal Bank of Scotland in Central London.
Best has had long-term relationships with both companies.
Companies that employ contractors are increasing their use, according to a survey from the National Computing Centre that found green shoots of recovery in the IT labour market.
The centre found that the ration of contractors to permanent staff had jumped from 7 per cent to 13 per cent in the past year. But the number of companies using contracts rose only 1 per cent, to 30 per cent.
The survey found that the highest average IT salary increases were in utilities (4.3 per cent) and government (4.6 per cent). Web development skills are again those that organisations expect to have to buy in during the next year, either by recruitment or by hiring contractors.