This is a radical proposal by the People vs Barts PFI campaign which has been researching and discussing ‘what to do about PFI’ for several years. The paper explains what SPVs are, how SPVs spin off private profit from public assets and proposes a mechanism for nationalising the SPVs. Proposals to strengthen the public design, project management and ‘intelligent client’ functions be strengthened in non-PFI public sector construction projects and problems with the proposal to centralise the debt are detailed in two appendices. A proposal to centralise and reduce PFI obligations contained in Part 4 of the NHS Reinstatement Bill are also examined. Access paper:

The Council finally terminated the 2007 contract after years of failing to achieve savings, poor performance, expensive contractual disputes and returning some services in-house. Details of these events are contained in various editions of the PPP Strategic Partnership Database.

Two reports by ESSU predicted these problems – Somerset ISIS or Crisis and Southwest One Lessons and New Agenda.

Dave Orr, a retired UNISON member, and Nigel Behan, UNITE, undertook a rigorous investigative 8-year campaign to expose the fundamental flaws in the contract.

“What we are for is equally important as what we are against” was the theme of a large public meeting on 16 September at Nottingham University. The presentation described the dynamic forces, public sector ‘transformation’ and set out alternative strategies to regenerate public services. The meeting was jointly organized by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, Spokesman Books, the Centre of the Study of Social and Global Justice and University and College Union.
 

A major study of the New Health and Social Care Economy was launched at a Integrate Care Council event in Birmingham on 1 July. The 96-page report is a definitive analysis of the Sefton MBC, Liverpool and Greater Manchester City Regions and the North West regional economy.

466,574 documents (doc and pdf), presentations and spreadsheets have been downloaded from this ESSU/CPS website since June 2005 with a global reach – a very significant record for a small organisation. Many documents are also available on the websites of organisations that commissioned research and analysis, thus increasing the total to well over half a million downloads.