Maude has set-up a new committee of  ‘Crown Representatives’ made-up of commercial directors from all the big-spending Government departments to ensure value for money.

The group will provide a single point of contact for contractors rather than negotiating with individual departments.

The committee will also be responsible for developing ‘emerging players’ to the market to ensure stiff competition for public contracts.

The Government has renegotiated contracts with over 50 suppliers since last July saving £800m.

Maude said: “Our priority is to make sure the taxpaying public gets the best possible deal – and one of the ways of doing this is to ensure we’re really using the scale of government to push down prices.

“That is why any dealings with our big suppliers have to be coordinated and our approach has to be strategic – the new Crown Representatives will make sure this happens.

“Today’s announcement shows that we were serious about changing the way that Government does business.

“We have already saved £800m since May by starting to establish Government as a single customer. But, in doing this we also recognised that we need better, more efficient relationships with suppliers over the long term.

“The value of a single representative, acting on behalf of all departments, became apparent during the contract renegotiations.

“It brought benefits for both sides – bringing a complete picture of a supplier’s portfolio of contracts to the discussions and able to identifying opportunities for synergy and cost removal.”