Connaught has eight contracts with Norwich City Council for services, such as rubbish collection, street cleaning and housing maintenance, and the firm employs 650 people in the city.
Norwich City Councillor and Deputy Leader of the Green Party Adrian Ramsay said today:
"We asked questions about whether this contract was too good to be true. We consistently argued that it's better to bring the services back in house and when these contracts come to an end, that it what we would seek to do if we were the largest party at City Hall. We believe this would provide better rights for workers, a better service for residents, and more accountability."
Claire Stephenson is leading the Green Party campaign for the City Council elections which take place on Thursday. If re-elected, it is expected that she will resume her position as leader of the Green group of councillors. Ms Stephenson said:
"Asking private companies to do the work of the council often turns out to be more expensive and means that the council has less control over the work that is done. Green councillors would like to bring some contracts back in house over the next few years."
She added that the experience with Connaught reflected badly on Labour's ability to run the council successfully.
Notes
If the Green Party emerges from 9th September elections as the largest party, it would be the first time that the Greens have achieved this on any council in the UK.
For the last two years, the Greens have been the official opposition, by two seats, to Labour. In the 2009 European election, the Green Party secured more votes than any other party in the Norwich City Council area, gaining 25%.
An "election special" edition of Norwich Green Party's GreenView newspaper is available online at: ww.norwichgreenparty.org offering more background to manifesto proposals.