Opening up public services to competition

• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  24 September 2012     13:20192852
  #1      
  interesting report but note the use of the word "could".
  
  
  
  http://www.cbi.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2012/09/action-now-to-open-up-more-public-services-to-competition-could-save-%C2%A3226-billion/
• Guest 710

  • Registered: 28 Feb 2011
  • Posts: 6,950
  24 September 2012     14:33192863
  #2      
  "That is the way to maintain quality and achieve billions of pounds worth of savings. That isn't to say the private sector should do everything - but take school dinners - is it really necessary for three quarters of all our schools to be worrying about catering?"
  What about nutrition? Not seen as a high priority so far in the quasi-private education sector.
  
  "Providers from all sectors need to understand the Government's vision for public service markets so that they can invest in the new delivery models, technology innovations and supply chains, which will deliver the savings and transform the way the public access key services."
  i.e. Promise us loads of dosh so we can spend now and some time later...way down the line...eventually savings will be made. Just like PFI short term savings verses long term payment.
  
  "A selection of results in services already partially open shows the potential scale of the opportunity:..."
  
  Here's just one...
  "£240 million potential savings from fully opening up the prisons estate"
  
  I can see why they did not write, "fully opening up the prisons", but what is their meaning of 'estate'?
  
  There is one certain way of increasing costs and ratcheting-up the need for more and more of this and that...Privatise it.
  What is so attractive in reducing prison populations if the more prisoners there are the more money is to be made?
  
  Do none at the CBI have ideas for manufacturing etc.?
  
  Typically, private sector efficiencies lead to under-manning by way of throwing skilled personnel on the scrap heap where they can, at each and every opportunity, be addressed as the root of all our problems.
  
  And finally...
  
  "Ensuring providers from the public, private and voluntary sectors can compete on a level playing-field, and their performance is judged on equal terms, means in the end the best provider will provide."
  
  So, the wages of the public and private sectors must be in line with that of the volunteer? They nearly had me there.
  Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
• Guest 710

  • Registered: 28 Feb 2011
  • Posts: 6,950
  26 September 2012     12:33193095
  #3      
  Rightly, I can rely on a Professor to be more succinct...
  
  " Britain needs productive industries which can compete effectively in global markets; but there is something pathetic as well as unsavoury about the latest sally from Britain's business lobby (CBI wants third of public spending thrown open, 24 September). Unable to sell products in global markets, the CBI insists increasingly scarce public funds - our money - should fill the gap. As a rationale they offer "savings", though in fact experience suggests the price of such savings is lost jobs and more poverty for many, fatter profits for a few, and unprecedented inequality.
  
  The option should also, they say, be open to "social enterprises and charities". But charities and voluntary organisations will at best be junior partners to corporate capital, "bid candy" camouflaging private profit. One can understand why the CBI's members would want access to soft domestic markets; but is destroying the public service, and a large element of the British voluntary and charitable sector, a price worth paying for further featherbedding of private industry's incompetence?
  Professor John Holford
  University of Nottingham"
  
  From...
  
  http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/sep/25/unfair-taxes-thin-yellow-line
  Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.
• howard mcsweeney1

  • Location: Dover
  • Registered: 12 Mar 2008
  • Posts: 62,352
  26 September 2012     13:56193101
  #4      
  interesting article tom with a lot of truth in it - possible savings made are miniscule and would no doubt lead to large scale job losses to ensure profits are healthy and dividends to shareholders are paid out.