Birmingham City Council has been urged by a senior Government minister to think again over plans to send 55 IT jobs to India.

Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said the posts should stay in the UK, claiming the work could be outsourced to other local councils, such as those in the North of England, instead.

Birmingham City Council caused uproar when it announced that it was considering outsourcing up to 100 IT posts to India by the end of the year.

It later revealed that the cost-cutting measure had been scaled back, but said it still planned to off-shore 55 jobs.

Service Birmingham, a joint venture between Birmingham City Council and management firm Capita, has already begun recruiting staff in the Indian city of Pune.

But Mr Pickles said he believed jobs could be kept in England. He said: “I was up in south Tyneside where they are building a headquarters with BT to do the back offices of other authorities.

“There is enough capacity there.

“I would hope that my dear chums in Birmingham will have a look at that first, because I think that might well offer a pretty good solution.”

Mr Pickles has frequently called on councils to consider saving money by sharing back office functions rather than each operating their own finance, human resources or IT departments.

Although the city council has membership at board level, Service Birmingham is under the overall control of Capita.

When Service Birmingham negotiated an extension of its main contract at the beginning of the year, the company had to agree to reduce its costs by £135 million over 10 years as a contribution to the spending squeeze facing the council.

Union leaders have condemned the off-shoring plan.