A partnership between two county councils will share services to make improvements and save millions.

Surrey and East Sussex officially launched the partnership, called Orbis, and expect to save £8m-a-year within four years.

Orbis will be covering services that include human resources, property, procurement, finance and information technology.

Surrey strategic director for business services Julie Fisher said: "The public sector should be seen as one team cooperating to save money wherever possible.

"Orbis is all about using our collective buying power and streamlining processes to provide better, more efficient services."

East Sussex chief operating officer Kevin Foster said: "This is an exciting opportunity and signals the strength of East Sussex and Surrey’s relationship which gives us the confidence to launch this compelling alternative for the public sector."

The Surrey cabinet reported that bringing together the services from Surrey County Council and East Sussex County Council would create sufficient scale to allow the recruitment and retention of the best staff, drive shared efficiencies and invest in new technology that might otherwise be too expensive for each organisation alone.

The shared services will be led by a joint committee including three cabinet members from each authority and the contract will also allow other local authorities to join in the future.