80% want public ownership option for services

80 per cent of the public believe that there should always be a public sector bid when a public service in contracted out to judge if the service could be provided at better value, according to a new survey.

80 per cent of the public believe there should always be a public sector bid when a public service in contracted out to judge if the service could be provided at better value, according to a new survey.

The poll, carried out by Survation and commissioned by We Own It, a new organisation launching toda, also found that 79 per cent believe the public should be consulted and have their views considered before services are privatised or outsourced.

60 per cent believe local and national government should run public services in the public sector by default, and only consider contracting out if this fails.

Other findings were that:

  • 79 per cent believe the public should be consulted and have their views considered before any service is privatised or outsourced.

  • 69 per cent of Labour voters believe the public sector is more accountable than the private sector when running public services

  • 90 per cent of Tory voters believe the government should be required to end private company contracts early when they are found to be doing a poor job of running public services, following public complaints.

  • 88 per cent believe private companies running public services should be required to be as transparent about their performance and financial data as the public sector

  • 48 per cent (mistakenly) believe that private companies running public services are obliged by law to respond to Freedom of Information requests

Commenting on the findings, shadow minister for the Cabinet Office John Trickett said the poll demonstrated that the public were “deeply troubled” by the government’s “ideological approach” to public services.

“In Recent times the country has witnessed some high profile failures by private providers of public services, such as Serco’s disastrous out of hours GP service and the failure of A4e in getting people back to work to name just two. It is now time for the government to put evidence before dogma in its approach to public service provision,” he added.

Cat Hobbs, director of We Own It, said she hoped the report would “spell the beginning of the end for privatisation-as-usual. In the future, public services will need to be owned by and accountable to the people they serve”.

Left Foot Forward recently looked at five reasons why privatising the Royal Mail is bad policy.

One Response to “80% want public ownership option for services”

  1. blarg1987

    it is interesting to note in countries where there is a partial public sector, private companies are more competative and do provide value for money and better services, maybe it is because it is harder to collude when yyou do have actual competiton :).

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