KENT Reliance Building Society has turned to computer experts in India to upgrade its system.

Mike Lazenby, chief executive of the Chatham-based society, revealed that he had taken the decision because Indian workers were cheaper than local software designers and just as well qualified.

The record-breaking society that pushed assets up by 50 per cent to £600m last year with a string of best-buy products aims to double asset growth over the next two years to £1.2 billion.

But it wants to achieve this and drive down costs at the same time. This meant turning to a software firm in India, Mr Lazenby said.

"If you wanted someone here to work in your IT department on a contract basis, you've got to pay between £800 and £1,000 a day. That's the bottom end so you may get two or three people applying.

"If you advertise in India, you will get somebody who has got at least one MBA (Master of Business Administration) and you will get about 1,000 applicants and you will pay about £100 a day."

Mr Lazenby has just returned from a fact-finding visit to Chennai, Delhi and Bangalore. There was close to 100 per cent literacy, he said, and Indians who had previously worked for Kent Reliance had "done a very good job."

He dismissed claims that using Indian workers robbed local people of a job, claiming that skilled staff were thin on the ground and too expensive.

"If I can get 10 times as much IT development for the same price, as a businessman I have to do that. There are very few people over here that we could afford to recruit to do the things we need in the timeframe we need them."

Many Indians had degrees, he said, "even people doing menial jobs like cleaning streets and toilets."

"I'm not saying that British people are lazy but I'm sure they don't work as hard as people in India.

"We want to be one of the lowest cost providers in the industry, otherwise we won't be here in five years' time."