A council has made savings of more than £6 million pounds in an efficiency drive.

Brighton and Hove City Council said it had saved £6.2 million in the last financial year and plans to save a further £7 million this year.

The authority has been striving to push down costs as part of Government plans to save £6.5 billion a year nationally in local government spending.

Brighton and Hove's savings of £13.5 million for last year and this year are far greater than the £5.7 million target the council was set as part of the Gershon Review of public service efficiency.

But opposition parties say the cost-cutting measures are a desperate attempt to appease angry taxpayers whose bills have doubled since 1997. They say the Government is also to blame for failing to provide a fair funding settlement for the city.

Last year adult social services saved £1.5 million by using in-house rather than agency staff.

Some of the savings were reinvested to provide better home care for the elderly.

Environmental services saved £1.7 million, mainly through making Cityclean's waste collection service more efficient.

Of the £7.2 million savings planned for this year, £1.7 million will come from administration, better procurement and management of contracts and a crackdown on housing benefit fraud.

A saving of £1 million will be made by expanding the wheelie bin scheme.

Labour finance councillor Simon Burgess said: "This shows you can have better services for less cost, which is what council tax payers are asking us to deliver."

But Conservative leader Garry Peltzer Dunn said: "These savings have been forced on the council because during the last nine years they have doubled council tax and there is a perception services have got worse. If taxes had got any higher people would have rebelled."

Coun Peltzer Dunn said the Government was partly to blame for giving Brighton and Hove low grants while foisting additional responsibilities on the council without providing funds to pay for them.

Green Party convenor Keith Taylor said: "The reason behind the need for savings is the Government cutting back funding.

"We received practically the lowest increase in the country."

Liberal Democrat leader Paul Elgood said: "The Government has forced the council to cut back to the bone. No one has liked doing it and we are always keeping a close eye on the effect on frontline services.

"We have had some concerns but the council has to become leaner and to a degree more efficient."