Southend-on-Sea Borough Council selects Tusker’s salary sacrifice car scheme for all employees

This article is written by our channel sponsor, Tusker

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council has increased the number of benefits it makes available to its 2,000 employees by adding Tusker’s market-leading salary sacrifice car scheme, SS4C, to its flexible benefits portfolio.

The Council is making SS4C scheme available for all permanently contracted employees and has set a carbon cap of 120g/km for new cars which can be ordered in line with its policy of carbon reduction and its green travel agenda.

The car scheme also provides employees with a full range of additional features including fully comprehensive motor insurance, maintenance, servicing, replacement types, Road Fund Licence and European breakdown assistance.

The Council said there had been a very positive initial reaction to the scheme, which had been easy to implement and administer and was being communicated to staff via internal bulletins.

“We are facing huge financial challenges and our staff are having to cope with a third year of salary freezes. This is a creative and practical way of helping staff to do more with their money at no extra cost to the Council,” said Joanna Ruffle, Head of HR.

“At the same time, we wanted to ensure that employees have access to a safe, well maintained, fully insured and environmentally friendly vehicle which also meets our duty of care responsibilities.

“Our new salary sacrifice car scheme from Tusker ticks all those boxes,” she said.

Southend Borough Council selected the SS4C scheme under the terms of a Pan Government Collaborative Framework Agreement originally set up by North Yorkshire Country Council when it established its own salary sacrifice car scheme with Tusker around 18 months ago.

Under the agreement, the Tusker scheme is available for use by all UK contracting public sector authorities, including Government Departments, Non-Departmental Public Bodies, the NHS, Local Authorities, Police Authorities and Emergency Services.

“It was extremely convenient to be able to use the Framework Agreement and allowed us to implement the salary scheme quickly and with minimum fuss,” added Joanna Ruffle.

Salary sacrifice market leader, Tusker, currently has more than 75 salary sacrifice car schemes in operation across both private and public sectors.

Business development director, Alison Argall, said: “We are delighted to be working with Southend-on-Sea Borough Council to extend the benefits it makes available to all its full time employees.

“While SS4C will help in meeting the requirements of its green travel agenda, it will also offer staff a tax efficient car, environmental benefits and fixed cost, worry-free motoring.”