The Briefings will examine the impact of EU liberalisation and competition policy on the provision of public services in Britain. No 1 – European Union Competition Policy and the Liberalisation of Postal Services and No 2 – The Impact of European Union Competition Policy on Public Transport Policy and Provision in the UK, both by…

Following various reviews the County Council has decided to renegotiate the public private partnership contract with IBM and Mouchel just three years into the ten-year £400m contract. The Council wishes to bring some services and functions back in-house, change the governance of the JVC, achieve further savings and simplify the contract. The Council considered terminating…

Two articles in The Press, Barnet (13 January and 27 January 2011) on the potential effects of the sale of equity in PPP companies, focusing on Barnet General Hospital which featured in the ESSU Research Report – £10bn Sale of Shares in PPP Companies.

‘A Very Private Partnership’ in The Guardian Public section, Monday 17 January, has detailed coverage of the sale of shares in PPP companies by Jo Adetunji. It has a revealing response from HSBC Infrastructure. http://www.guardianpublic.co.uk/private-sector-profiteering-from-ppp

A new ESSU Research Report reveals 240 PPP equity transactions involved 1,229 PPP projects (including multiple sales) valued at £10.0bn in the last decade. Average profit was 50.6% in individual and group equity transactions. £517.9m profit from a sample of 154 PPP projects. If the same level of profit were maintained for the 622 individual…

The new expanded edition covers 43 contracts with a total value of £8.6bn and employing over 17,500 staff plus several large highway services and waste contracts. The Database reveals that BT, Capita and Mouchel dominate the rankings with a 61.9% market share by contract value. Six of the ten companies are foreign owned and have…

The London Borough of Barnet Council commissioned Impower/Agilysis to deliver an options appraisal for the future provision of Planning, Building Control, Environmental Health, Trading Standards and other Regulatory Services. They recommended “The market option most likely to deliver the improvement and price changes needed is a strategic partnership with the private sector.” They also recommended…

A revised edition of the ESSU Employment Risk Matrix has been published comparing the risks of the Secondment, TUPE Plus and TUPE employment models. It covers changes to terms and conditions, pensions and staff consultation and representation. 84% of the risk for employees in a TUPE transfer are in the high and medium risk categories…

Commissioned by the University and College Union (UCU) and UNISON, the study estimates that the University’s proposed 35m pound budget cut by the beginning of the 2010/11 academic year will result in between 625-700 university job losses and a total UK loss of 1,187-1,330 jobs. It concludes that “a ‘world class university’ is also one…

The Toolkit is based on templates for Service Reviews, Options Appraisals and Business Cases. Appendices cover soft market testing and key questions for options appraisal.