Uncategorized

  • Social Enterprise plans wage cuts, redundancies and service closures

    Somerset County Council plans to transfer the Council’s Learning Disabilities Provider Service to a new social enterprise established by Dimensions (UK) Ltd in April 2017. The service has an annual budget of nearly £30m and 1,160 staff. The social enterprise has announced plans to reduce all terms and conditions for the whole workforce, impose immediate…

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • Maintaining market principles: Government auditors, PPP equity sales and hegemony: Public sector reforms, public private partnerships and whole government accounting

    Article by Stewart Smyth and Dexter Whitfield in Accounting Forum journal. The UK’s government auditors, the National Audit office (NAO), play a central role in the accountability relations surrounding government expenditure. Commonly portrayed as being independent, they carry out performance audits assessing value for money. To date the emerging market for PPP equity transactions has…

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • PFI schools built in Scotland owned by offshore firms

    An hour-long BBC television ‘Scotland Investigates’ programme on 22 August revealed evidence by Dexter Whitfield that over 80% of Scotland’s PFI schools are partly or wholly owned in offshore tax havens. The programme investigated the cause of the closure of 17 Edinburgh schools for repairs after construction defaults were found. Equity in this project had…

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • Statement to Somerset County Council on outsourcing Learning Disabilities Service

    A joint UNITE Somerset and European Service Strategy Unit statement summarising the case against the planned outsourcing of the Learning Disability Service. It exposes fundamental flaws and negligent practice, which indicate the Council has not learnt the lessons of the failed PPP Strategic Partnership contract with IBM.

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • Flawed PFI schools cost Edinburgh £100m too much

    The additional cost of PFI for the PPP1 schools project is estimated to be £104m compared to the cost of direct provision by the City Council. Offshore infrastructure funds own a majority of equity in the special purpose company and 100 percent of equity in the PPP2 project. http://www.scotsman.com/business/flawed-schools-cost-capital-100m-too-much-says-pfi-expert-1-4102451

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • Salford Star exposes massive PFI profits at Salford Royal Hospital

    A prime example of connecting the £11.5m profit from Balfour Beatty’s 50% stake in the PFI special purpose company to the HICL offshore infrastructure fund generating a 19% return; the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust’s forecast of a £14.9m deficit this year; a £17m PFI payment due in 2016 towards the total project cost of…

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • SERCO pays £4m after contract terminated

    The New Zealand Department of Corrections took over management of Serco’s 10-year NZ$300m Mount Eden remand prison contract in 2015 after just four years. Serco has now agreed to pay £4m for the cost of state intervention and outstanding performance penalties. It is limited to a labour supply agreement at cost until 31 March 2017.

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • ‘Why have councils fallen out of love with outsourcing vital services’

    The title of an article in *The Guardian* (by Lizzie Presser) which draws on ESSU’s database of PPP Strategic Partnerships and evidence of a high contract failure rate. Includes comments about the benefits of in-house services from leaders of Cumbria County Council, Liverpool City, the London Borough of Islington and the Local Government Association’s improvement…

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • 新卫生和社会照料经济：来自英格兰西北地区的 报告 Chinese translation of summary of New Health and Social Care Economy

    The Chinese translation of the summary report of The New Health and Social Care Economy study of Sefton MBC, Liverpool and Greater Manchester City Regions and North West regional economy – see News, July 2015. Thanks to Prof. Li Bing, Beijing.

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.

  • The Private Finance Initiative: nationalise the Special Purpose Vehicles and end profiteering from public assets

    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,…

    Published on 6th February 2017. Last updated 7th June 2017.