Between 1990 and 1994, Ealing council under conservative control undertook an aggressive strategy of commercialising its public services, taking privatisation and commercialisation to extreme lengths and leaving a lasting legacy of unemployment, low levels of service provision and accountability, and a huge budget deficit. This report documents the devastating nature of such policies, and offers a textbook example of the risks of privatisation and externalisation of public services. Written and researched by Centre for Public Services for Ealing Unison (1994).