A U-TURN over Birmingham City Council’s controversial decision to move IT jobs to India could end up costing the taxpayer £12.6 million it has emerged.

That is the total of direct costs and the extra savings the authority must find over the next decade to make up for bringing the specialist jobs back to Birmingham.

The council’s contractor Capita was last year set to hire 55 IT specialists in Pune, near Mumbai, to work on its Service Birmingham call centre contract.

But a massive public backlash over the plan prompted bosses to renegotiate the contract and stop the work going abroad.

Details of the renegotiation emerged during a council cabinet budget update which revealed a £12.6 million reduction in savings.

Opposition Labour group leader Sir Albert Bore said: “I welcomed the fact the jobs were not being off shored to India. But I am more than a little concerned that this has pushed an extra cost on this authority.”