Author Archives: John Tizard

Over the last two decades public policy and practice under both Labour and Conservative Governments has involved the promotion of a greater role for the business sector in the delivery of public services.

I am particularly thinking here about those services which are procured and contracted rather than those where the delivery organisations have been privatised, as with telecommunications, energy,...

EU procurement rules can certainly be streamlined. But we still need full accountability for the £80bn spent annually on the UK’s publicly-procured services

The Confederation of British Industry and the Local Government Association are understandably calling for a major review and overhaul of the EU Public Sector Procurement Regulations.

For many years, the UK public and business sectors have argued that...

It is just wrong to assume that the only assets and the only activities that matter in any community are those under the control of a local authority or the wider public sector. Unfortunately, anecdotal evidence from several places seeking to implement ‘neighbourhood community budgets’ is that this is the starting and all too often the finishing point. This...

The energy and excitement surrounding the London Olympics 2012 has been a credit to London and the UK.

But as politicians and others, especially mayor of London Boris Johnson, queue up to take the credit and seize the limelight, it is worth noting two important facts.

First, the right and honour to host the 2012 Olympic Games was...

Finance and funding for small and medium-sized charities is essential – but come with a lot of strings and conditions attached. So how much risk should charity trustees take?

Charity trustees and chief executives – especially those in smaller organisations, with few assets and small balance sheets – are increasingly asking just how much risk they should be prepared to...

The Wall Street Journal headline "Look Who's Embracing Privatization--Big City Democrats" on 6th July was certainly eye catching to one who has been involved, studied and commentated on public-private partnerships in the UK for over 25 years.

The statement in the article that "There are decades of major public-private partnership success stories in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and...

Tom Levitt has written an erudite and timely book on the changing relationships and boundaries between the business, public and third sectors.

It should be read by those responsible for a wide range of public policies from "big society" to personalisation of public services and localism – and it should also be read by those involved in their...

If the Government and the wider public sector genuinely want more public services to be delivered through contracts by newly formed social enterprises, charities, employee co-operatives spun out from the public sector and SMEs, they need to get the message through to their procurement teams.

All too often, procurement processes and requirements make it either impossible or extremely difficult for...

Over the last few decades, there has been an increasing trend to contract businesses to deliver public services. This trend, of course, goes back decades and indeed centuries but began to accelerate during Mrs Thatcher's Government and continued at an ...