The Mutation of Privatisation: A critical assessment of new community and individual rights, European Services Strategy Unit – Research Report No. 5, Dexter Whitfield – has been published by Spokesman Books, ISBN 978-0-85124-817-2, price £8.95, order online: http://www.spokesmanbooks.com/acatalog/Dexter_Whitfield.html The study has been featured on the Australian Government’s Service Delivery in Government web site: http://servicedelivery.govspace.gov.au/2012/07/30/featured-reports-6/

In the mid-1980s, prompted by the passing of Single European Act, the European Union embarked upon an ambitious programme of liberalisation to complete the Single Market. This included the opening up of many national industries to pan-European competition. EU public procurement law has been a crucial pillar to this agenda as EU institutions have sought…

New community rights to bid, buy, build, challenge and provide are enshrined in legislation and Coalition policy. The government is also extending existing individual rights to buy and to personal budgets. This paper examines the objectives and scope of the new community rights and proposes a typology of public sector reform rights. It highlights the…

“This is not so much a ‘hollowing out’ of the state, but a fundamental redirection to finance and manage markets and collusion in the deepening of corporate welfare.” Chartist, July/August 2012.

The London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) has reversed its decision to award a ten-year 999 Fire Control managed services contract to Capita plc. Instead the LFEPA will enter into a contract for a replacement mobilising system only. This means that the 120 control staff will remain employed by the Authority. ESSU produced a…

UNISON has called on the London Borough of Barnet to immediately abandon its plan to become a Commissioning Council. The report by the European Services Strategy Unit (ESSU) documents the fundamental weaknesses in each stage of the procurement process for two large strategic partnerships of up to £1billion value and nearly 1,000 staff. The report…

Excessive profits obtained by PPP companies and banks is again in the news. The first evidence on the scale of excessive PFI profits and the growth the secondary market was detailed in *Global Auction of Public Assets* by Dexter Whitfield and followed by a more detailed research in *The £10bn Sale of Shares in PPP…

“‘Payment by results’ has become the new performance management mantra. It is intended to incentivise contractors, with payment conditional on the completion of agreed outputs or outcomes. There are currently two such payment and reward models: the social impact bond mechanism and phased incentive payments.” This article examines the implications of this approach, the growth…

In February Dexter Whitfield gave lectures at the University of Sheffield (Department of Sociological Studies), Queens University, Belfast (School of Management), given evidence to the Public Accounts Committee, Western Australia State Government, and a presentation to the Canadian Union of Public Employees bi-annual research meeting.

An assessment of a business case update for the customer and support services outsourcing highlights the London Borough of Barnet’s approach – ignore real risks, miscalculate client costs, exaggerate savings, claim non-financial benefits that cannot be substantiated, inadequate equalities assessments and ignore the high failure rate PPP strategic partnership track record. The Council’s refusal to…