Public bodies have more than doubled the amount of taxpayers' money saved by joining forces to buy in products and services, it was announced today.

Online 'auctions' of public sector contracts helped boost the annual saving to £1.4bn of taxpayers' money, according to the Office of Government Commerce (OGC).

The OGC's annual report said £50m, or 31 per cent, was shaved from the IT bill for 600 public sector organisations' desktops, laptops, printers and servers using the method.

Other belt-tightening successes included moves to cut energy bills by automatically turning off computers at night and a rail travel booking system at the Environment Agency that saw spending cut by 20 per cent in a month by searching for best-value fares.

OGC chief executive Nigel Smith said: "Getting maximum value from government spend has never been more important than now, and the OGC is helping the public sector deliver this.

"The momentum we have seen over the past year must be maintained if we are to deliver the savings potentials that have been identified through the Operational Efficiency Programme."