An inevitable result of tories getting their legs under ministerial desks was a systematic rolling back of the state apparatus and more individual freedoms – or in more plain language, privatising a range of government services in return for large scale election campaign donations.
An investigation by the Guardian reveals details of how government efficiency plans aimed at slashing spending in town halls and supposedly boosting productivity in the health service are likely to deliver new business for private companies worth billions of pounds.
Executives in outsourcing firms such as Capita are said to be rubbing their hands in expectation of huge lucrative contracts that will put local authority back-office services up and down the UK into the hands of more efficient, i.e. cheaper, private contractors.
The paper also reports that US health giants Humana, UnitedHealth, Aetna and MCCI are all understood to be interested in healthcare contracts that could flow from a new commissioning system in which GPs may be given the power to buy in services from any accredited health group or hospital. Although the switch in responsibilities does not apply in Wales, there are plenty of other clinical and non-clinical opportunities for firms to pursue.
Whilst the private sector is anticipating a payback bonanza, unions are pointing out that the instances where actual savings have been realised through privatisation are very few. Most end up costing taxpayers considerably more through poorly drafted and badly managed contracts which result in additional charges or penalties.
But a key difference this time around is that ministers are not pushing the compulsory competitive tendering of the Thatcher era which subsequently spawned several bastard offspring under Blair’s improvement agenda. The view is that existing powers are sufficient to induce councils, hospitals and public bodies to go down the road of private contracts without any additional legislation.
They could well be right if rumours are true that an imminent attack on minimum wage levels is also part of the ConDem strategy. It would be a huge enticement to the public sector operating outside Whitehall who will be desperate to achieve year-on-year savings and could be the determining factor for many public service operations.
As a spokesman for the New Local Government Network puts it, "The private sector likes the clarity it has seen from the new government,"
"It will see the present climate as a greater opportunity than over the last couple of years even though the budgets are shrinking. The low-hanging fruit have already been picked in terms of rubbish collection and street cleaning.
"The services that are now likely to be privatised are those such as probation and care homes, and the public will feel a different emotional attachment to them."
An added dimension of the Cameron-Clegg brand of privatisation is the advent of customer call-centres in service industries which could well mean some town hall functions being transferred overseas. According to the Guardian, The potential volume of work is so great that firms from India and Germany have already entered the market.
The Observer reports that DWP Secretary Ian Duncan Smith has told officials to redo their sums over the projected costs of the benefits change he is planning and anticipated take-up levels. Under the circumstances it sounds like very good advice.
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