Opening up the White Paper

Readers of The MJ will, of course, be unsurprised at media stories this week suggesting PM David Cameron’s much-trailed and much-delayed White Paper on opening up public services will be less privatising than originally suggested.
Back in February when the story of a ‘radical, privatising’ paper was first floated in the Daily Telegraph, causing an inevitable union backlash, The MJ pointed out that the paper was actually much less dramatic than its interpretation (24 February). In March, The MJ quoted DCLG minister, Greg Clark – who is presenting a report on decentralisation to the prime minister in the summer – equally denying that the White Paper would mean full-scale privatisation.
This week’s BBC ‘leak’ of discussions between Cabinet Office minister, Francis Maude, and the CBI, quotes the former saying the coalition was against full-scale privatisation but in favour of more pluralistic delivery. In particular, it wanted more social enterprises and mutuals to take on public services, again a strategy which should come as little surprise to local government, although certainly more so for the health sector.
In The MJ this week (page 16) former Number 10 policy adviser, Dan Corry, warns of the tendency of incoming administrations to issue White Papers about public service reform as a way of making their mark, only to quietly forget about them. The coalition has already shown itself willing to be bold in tackling what it regards as failing public services, such as in welfare, schools, criminal justice and police, and one questions the need for yet another White Paper on more reform in sectors such as local government, where pluralistic delivery is already usual. Indeed, another report this week from Oxford Economics on behalf of the Business Services Association said the UK’s outsourcing industry was now almost as big as the financial sector.
Local government will continue to need the expertise of private partners, especially where investment and technology is required, and no amount of White Papers will make a jot of difference to this trend. Arguments about whether the Government is pro or anti privatisation, and whether the imminent Cameron reform paper means more or less outsourcing is political background noise.