Roderick Martin, Peter D. Casson, and Tahir M. Nisar
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199202607
- eISBN:
- 9780191707896
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199202607.003.0005
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Finance, Accounting, and Banking
Private equity funds contribute heavily to the performance of the firms in which they invest beyond the provision of capital. Through detailed examination of seven case studies of private equity ...
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Private equity funds contribute heavily to the performance of the firms in which they invest beyond the provision of capital. Through detailed examination of seven case studies of private equity funds and portfolio companies, this chapter shows how private equity funds provide ‘commercial savvy’ and international connections to the companies in which they invest, as well as sector-specific knowledge. The funds may involve themselves in areas traditionally considered as matters of concern to investors, such as corporate strategy, and in matters normally considered the province of managers, such as innovation and employee skill development.Less
Private equity funds contribute heavily to the performance of the firms in which they invest beyond the provision of capital. Through detailed examination of seven case studies of private equity funds and portfolio companies, this chapter shows how private equity funds provide ‘commercial savvy’ and international connections to the companies in which they invest, as well as sector-specific knowledge. The funds may involve themselves in areas traditionally considered as matters of concern to investors, such as corporate strategy, and in matters normally considered the province of managers, such as innovation and employee skill development.
A.C.L. Davies
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199287390
- eISBN:
- 9780191713484
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287390.001.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
Contract plays a vitally important role in the delivery of public services today. Both central and local government make extensive use of private firms to provide facilities, goods, and services. ...
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Contract plays a vitally important role in the delivery of public services today. Both central and local government make extensive use of private firms to provide facilities, goods, and services. Government contracts vary considerably from the relatively straightforward competitive procurement of office supplies to complex, long-term Private Finance Initiative or Public/Private Partnership arrangements in which the contractor researches and develops a new piece of military equipment, or builds and provides a fully serviced hospital over a thirty-year period. English law's traditional approach to government contracts has been to regard them as ordinary private law arrangements. As a result, they have understandably been neglected by public lawyers in both teaching and research. This book argues that, on closer inspection, constitutional law and administrative law (in the form of statute, common law, and government guidance) have been playing an increasingly important role in the regulation of certain key aspects of government contracting. The book analyses these public law elements in detail and suggests ways in which they might appropriately be developed more fully, in tandem with the underlying private law regime. The book's aim is to raise the profile of government contracts as a proper subject for public law scholarship, whilst at the same time contributing to important contemporary debates on issues such as the public/private divide, the scope of the judicial review jurisdiction, and the reach of the Human Rights Act 1998.Less
Contract plays a vitally important role in the delivery of public services today. Both central and local government make extensive use of private firms to provide facilities, goods, and services. Government contracts vary considerably from the relatively straightforward competitive procurement of office supplies to complex, long-term Private Finance Initiative or Public/Private Partnership arrangements in which the contractor researches and develops a new piece of military equipment, or builds and provides a fully serviced hospital over a thirty-year period. English law's traditional approach to government contracts has been to regard them as ordinary private law arrangements. As a result, they have understandably been neglected by public lawyers in both teaching and research. This book argues that, on closer inspection, constitutional law and administrative law (in the form of statute, common law, and government guidance) have been playing an increasingly important role in the regulation of certain key aspects of government contracting. The book analyses these public law elements in detail and suggests ways in which they might appropriately be developed more fully, in tandem with the underlying private law regime. The book's aim is to raise the profile of government contracts as a proper subject for public law scholarship, whilst at the same time contributing to important contemporary debates on issues such as the public/private divide, the scope of the judicial review jurisdiction, and the reach of the Human Rights Act 1998.
Nicholas Barr
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199246595
- eISBN:
- 9780191595936
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199246599.003.0014
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Public and Welfare
This chapter discusses a series of forward‐looking issues: methods of bringing private finance into tertiary education; student loans in the context of international labour mobility; extending loans ...
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This chapter discusses a series of forward‐looking issues: methods of bringing private finance into tertiary education; student loans in the context of international labour mobility; extending loans beyond higher education; and developing individual learning accounts.Less
This chapter discusses a series of forward‐looking issues: methods of bringing private finance into tertiary education; student loans in the context of international labour mobility; extending loans beyond higher education; and developing individual learning accounts.
Martin Carnoy, Prashant Loyalka, Maria Dobryakova, Rafiq Dossani, Isak Froumin, Katherine Kuhns, Jandhyala B. G. Tilak, and Rong Wang
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780804786010
- eISBN:
- 9780804786416
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804786010.003.0004
- Subject:
- Sociology, Education
The chapter describes the changing financing of higher education in the BRIC countries and challenges the interpretation that the trend toward increased reliance on private tuition is primarily the ...
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The chapter describes the changing financing of higher education in the BRIC countries and challenges the interpretation that the trend toward increased reliance on private tuition is primarily the result of an ideological shift. The chapter argues rather that “privatization” is mainly the result of the state's need to respond to political pressures for higher education enrollment increases under resource constraints in the context of rising payoffs to completing university. Such rising payoffs give the state the logical economically efficient option of charging families directly for more highly valued educational services. The chapter also challenges the notion that charging tuition creates greater inequity in the distribution of higher education public investment subsidies. It argues that a more important determinant of greater inequity in the distribution of higher education investments in the BRIC countries is the increasing differentiation in how the state finances elite and non-elite institutions.Less
The chapter describes the changing financing of higher education in the BRIC countries and challenges the interpretation that the trend toward increased reliance on private tuition is primarily the result of an ideological shift. The chapter argues rather that “privatization” is mainly the result of the state's need to respond to political pressures for higher education enrollment increases under resource constraints in the context of rising payoffs to completing university. Such rising payoffs give the state the logical economically efficient option of charging families directly for more highly valued educational services. The chapter also challenges the notion that charging tuition creates greater inequity in the distribution of higher education public investment subsidies. It argues that a more important determinant of greater inequity in the distribution of higher education investments in the BRIC countries is the increasing differentiation in how the state finances elite and non-elite institutions.
A C L Davies
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199287390
- eISBN:
- 9780191713484
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199287390.003.0001
- Subject:
- Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law
The first part of this chapter introduces the different types of government contract currently in use in central and local government. It identifies the three broad types of contracting activity that ...
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The first part of this chapter introduces the different types of government contract currently in use in central and local government. It identifies the three broad types of contracting activity that will be the focus of the book: procurement, contracting out, and the Private Finance Initiative and other Public/Private Partnerships. The chapter also identifies some other types of government contracts (employment contracts, ‘internal’ contracts) and explains why they are not to be examined in detail in the book. In the second part of the chapter, some key sectors of government contracting activity are examined: defence, information technology, transport, health, housing, and social care. The aim is to give an overview of how government uses contracts and some of the problems to which they give rise.Less
The first part of this chapter introduces the different types of government contract currently in use in central and local government. It identifies the three broad types of contracting activity that will be the focus of the book: procurement, contracting out, and the Private Finance Initiative and other Public/Private Partnerships. The chapter also identifies some other types of government contracts (employment contracts, ‘internal’ contracts) and explains why they are not to be examined in detail in the book. In the second part of the chapter, some key sectors of government contracting activity are examined: defence, information technology, transport, health, housing, and social care. The aim is to give an overview of how government uses contracts and some of the problems to which they give rise.
James Leigland
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- July 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198861829
- eISBN:
- 9780191894701
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198861829.003.0011
- Subject:
- Business and Management, International Business
This chapter presents a case study of a recent water public–private partnership (PPP) in Rwanda, which has many of the hybrid features discussed in earlier chapters, including the use of blended ...
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This chapter presents a case study of a recent water public–private partnership (PPP) in Rwanda, which has many of the hybrid features discussed in earlier chapters, including the use of blended finance. But the extensive use of blended finance needed to make this PPP commercially viable raises questions about how that blended finance was justified. How much subsidy in support of private finance is too much? Is it possible that a project like this may exceed a threshold beyond which it would be less expensive and more sustainable if implemented as a public project supported by concessional lending, rather than as a PPP with a relatively small measure of private finance (but all the costs and complexities that come with PPPs)? Are there more traditional contracting mechanisms that might work better than PPPs? Countries like India are experimenting with such alternatives to PPPs for less commercial projects in poorer regions.Less
This chapter presents a case study of a recent water public–private partnership (PPP) in Rwanda, which has many of the hybrid features discussed in earlier chapters, including the use of blended finance. But the extensive use of blended finance needed to make this PPP commercially viable raises questions about how that blended finance was justified. How much subsidy in support of private finance is too much? Is it possible that a project like this may exceed a threshold beyond which it would be less expensive and more sustainable if implemented as a public project supported by concessional lending, rather than as a PPP with a relatively small measure of private finance (but all the costs and complexities that come with PPPs)? Are there more traditional contracting mechanisms that might work better than PPPs? Countries like India are experimenting with such alternatives to PPPs for less commercial projects in poorer regions.
Stuart Hodkinson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526141866
- eISBN:
- 9781526144713
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526141866.003.0003
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
This chapter introduces the controversial background and evolution of the PFI model in public housing regeneration. A first section outlines the basic workings of PFI and how it emerged as part of ...
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This chapter introduces the controversial background and evolution of the PFI model in public housing regeneration. A first section outlines the basic workings of PFI and how it emerged as part of the wider corporate takeover and financialisation of public services. A second section debunks official claims that the inflated cost of private finance is justified by the superior ‘value for money’ delivered through PFI’s ‘risk transfer’ and ‘payment by result’s model. A third section provides an overview of the origins and evolution of PFI as the ‘only game in town’ for local authorities during the 2000s that wanted to retain ownership of public housing and access the desperately-needed finance for home and estates in need of major regeneration and refurbishment. It introduces the twenty public housing PFI regeneration schemes now operational in England, introducing the three London local authority case studies which form the evidence base of the book: Islington’s Street Properties, Camden’s Chalcots Estate and Lambeth’s Myatts Field North estate. A final section reveals the controversy on the ground that met the undemocratic imposition of many housing PFI schemes – sometimes in the face of resident opposition – and the problems that engulfed the procurement of these contracts.Less
This chapter introduces the controversial background and evolution of the PFI model in public housing regeneration. A first section outlines the basic workings of PFI and how it emerged as part of the wider corporate takeover and financialisation of public services. A second section debunks official claims that the inflated cost of private finance is justified by the superior ‘value for money’ delivered through PFI’s ‘risk transfer’ and ‘payment by result’s model. A third section provides an overview of the origins and evolution of PFI as the ‘only game in town’ for local authorities during the 2000s that wanted to retain ownership of public housing and access the desperately-needed finance for home and estates in need of major regeneration and refurbishment. It introduces the twenty public housing PFI regeneration schemes now operational in England, introducing the three London local authority case studies which form the evidence base of the book: Islington’s Street Properties, Camden’s Chalcots Estate and Lambeth’s Myatts Field North estate. A final section reveals the controversy on the ground that met the undemocratic imposition of many housing PFI schemes – sometimes in the face of resident opposition – and the problems that engulfed the procurement of these contracts.
Tania Burchardt and Polina Obolenskaya
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781447327714
- eISBN:
- 9781447327745
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447327714.003.0010
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Stratification, Inequality, and Mobility
This chapter analyses how the pattern of total spending, including both consumer and tax-financed expenditure, has evolved since 1979. Using the three dimensions of public and private finance, ...
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This chapter analyses how the pattern of total spending, including both consumer and tax-financed expenditure, has evolved since 1979. Using the three dimensions of public and private finance, provision and decision, and looking across and within the areas of education, health, personal care, income maintenance and housing, it reveals that the growth in consumer spending has outstripped the growth in public spending, and that there has been an on-going shift within publicly-financed services from the “pure public” (publicly provided and centrally decided) towards more varied forms, including contracted out services, and voucher-type schemes. The analysis suggests that the period of the Coalition government did not mark a step change, although some pre-existing trends were accelerated.Less
This chapter analyses how the pattern of total spending, including both consumer and tax-financed expenditure, has evolved since 1979. Using the three dimensions of public and private finance, provision and decision, and looking across and within the areas of education, health, personal care, income maintenance and housing, it reveals that the growth in consumer spending has outstripped the growth in public spending, and that there has been an on-going shift within publicly-financed services from the “pure public” (publicly provided and centrally decided) towards more varied forms, including contracted out services, and voucher-type schemes. The analysis suggests that the period of the Coalition government did not mark a step change, although some pre-existing trends were accelerated.
Ian Greener
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9781861346094
- eISBN:
- 9781447302490
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781861346094.003.0012
- Subject:
- Public Health and Epidemiology, Public Health
This chapter examines the general taxation funding of the NHS, one of the distinctive organisational feature of the NHS. It explains that the principle of funding health services from general ...
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This chapter examines the general taxation funding of the NHS, one of the distinctive organisational feature of the NHS. It explains that the principle of funding health services from general taxation is redistributionary, under which the richer in society are helping to subsidise those who might not otherwise be able to afford healthcare. The remains are funded primarily from general taxation, but there is a significant move towards utilising private financing for capital expenditure and incorporating private providers to create competition for care contracts.Less
This chapter examines the general taxation funding of the NHS, one of the distinctive organisational feature of the NHS. It explains that the principle of funding health services from general taxation is redistributionary, under which the richer in society are helping to subsidise those who might not otherwise be able to afford healthcare. The remains are funded primarily from general taxation, but there is a significant move towards utilising private financing for capital expenditure and incorporating private providers to create competition for care contracts.
Sally Ruane
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447348214
- eISBN:
- 9781447348269
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447348214.003.0014
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
Recent decades, shaped by powerful neoliberal forces, have witnessed a significant encroachment on the UK state sector with privatisation advancing over many social and economic sectors. The ...
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Recent decades, shaped by powerful neoliberal forces, have witnessed a significant encroachment on the UK state sector with privatisation advancing over many social and economic sectors. The extension of private sector involvement has implications for the effective public accountability of UK ‘public’ services. This chapter examines, through case studies drawn from the past ten or fifteen years, selected aspects of this diminished accountability. The three case studies concern the availability of data in relation to different dimensions of privatisation in the NHS: performance data in the provision of care when NHS-funded care is provided by private companies; financial and ownership details in infrastructure procurement; and technical data allowing an assessment of the character and implications of proposals in the policy process.Less
Recent decades, shaped by powerful neoliberal forces, have witnessed a significant encroachment on the UK state sector with privatisation advancing over many social and economic sectors. The extension of private sector involvement has implications for the effective public accountability of UK ‘public’ services. This chapter examines, through case studies drawn from the past ten or fifteen years, selected aspects of this diminished accountability. The three case studies concern the availability of data in relation to different dimensions of privatisation in the NHS: performance data in the provision of care when NHS-funded care is provided by private companies; financial and ownership details in infrastructure procurement; and technical data allowing an assessment of the character and implications of proposals in the policy process.
David M. Webber
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781474423564
- eISBN:
- 9781474438384
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9781474423564.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, UK Politics
The final case study returns to the theme of financing for development explored in chapter 5. Yet where this first case study chapter explored the macroeconomic architecture surrounding debt relief, ...
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The final case study returns to the theme of financing for development explored in chapter 5. Yet where this first case study chapter explored the macroeconomic architecture surrounding debt relief, chapter 7 examines the link between the welfare reforms that Gordon Brown introduced in the UK, and the ‘Global New Deal’ that he sought to promote abroad. The centrepiece of Brown’s ‘Global New Deal’ was his much-vaunted International Finance Facility (and, latterly, International Finance Facility for Immunisation). The IFF, it is argued here, was very much in keeping with Brown’s ‘golden rule’ to ‘borrow only to invest’ and his enthusiasm to use Private Finance Initiatives and Public-Private Partnerships to fund public goods. With overseas aid viewed as a form of global welfare, the IFF would frontload the finance needed for development and distribute it to those recipient countries that met the responsibilities demanded of them. Ascribing aid with the same contractual obligations of ‘rights and responsibilities’ however, served only to obscure the structural causes of inequality faced by many countries in the global South. Moreover, Brown’s own form of ‘conditionality’ would restrict still further the already-limited economic autonomy of those nations urgently in need of this aid.Less
The final case study returns to the theme of financing for development explored in chapter 5. Yet where this first case study chapter explored the macroeconomic architecture surrounding debt relief, chapter 7 examines the link between the welfare reforms that Gordon Brown introduced in the UK, and the ‘Global New Deal’ that he sought to promote abroad. The centrepiece of Brown’s ‘Global New Deal’ was his much-vaunted International Finance Facility (and, latterly, International Finance Facility for Immunisation). The IFF, it is argued here, was very much in keeping with Brown’s ‘golden rule’ to ‘borrow only to invest’ and his enthusiasm to use Private Finance Initiatives and Public-Private Partnerships to fund public goods. With overseas aid viewed as a form of global welfare, the IFF would frontload the finance needed for development and distribute it to those recipient countries that met the responsibilities demanded of them. Ascribing aid with the same contractual obligations of ‘rights and responsibilities’ however, served only to obscure the structural causes of inequality faced by many countries in the global South. Moreover, Brown’s own form of ‘conditionality’ would restrict still further the already-limited economic autonomy of those nations urgently in need of this aid.
Francesca Trivellato
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780691178592
- eISBN:
- 9780691185378
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691178592.001.0001
- Subject:
- Business and Management, Finance, Accounting, and Banking
This book takes an incisive look at pivotal episodes in the West's centuries-long struggle to define the place of private finance in the social and political order. It does so through the lens of a ...
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This book takes an incisive look at pivotal episodes in the West's centuries-long struggle to define the place of private finance in the social and political order. It does so through the lens of a persistent legend about Jews and money that reflected the anxieties surrounding the rise of impersonal credit markets. By the close of the Middle Ages, new and sophisticated credit instruments made it easier for European merchants to move funds across the globe. Bills of exchange were by far the most arcane of these financial innovations. Intangible and written in a cryptic language, they fueled world trade but also lured naive investors into risky businesses. This book recounts how the invention of these abstruse credit contracts was falsely attributed to Jews, and how this story gave voice to deep-seated fears about the unseen perils of the new paper economy. It locates the legend's earliest version in a seventeenth-century handbook on maritime law and traces its legacy all the way to the work of the founders of modern social theory—from Marx to Weber and Sombart. Deftly weaving together economic, legal, social, cultural, and intellectual history, the book describes how Christian writers drew on the story to define and redefine what constituted the proper boundaries of credit in a modern world increasingly dominated by finance.Less
This book takes an incisive look at pivotal episodes in the West's centuries-long struggle to define the place of private finance in the social and political order. It does so through the lens of a persistent legend about Jews and money that reflected the anxieties surrounding the rise of impersonal credit markets. By the close of the Middle Ages, new and sophisticated credit instruments made it easier for European merchants to move funds across the globe. Bills of exchange were by far the most arcane of these financial innovations. Intangible and written in a cryptic language, they fueled world trade but also lured naive investors into risky businesses. This book recounts how the invention of these abstruse credit contracts was falsely attributed to Jews, and how this story gave voice to deep-seated fears about the unseen perils of the new paper economy. It locates the legend's earliest version in a seventeenth-century handbook on maritime law and traces its legacy all the way to the work of the founders of modern social theory—from Marx to Weber and Sombart. Deftly weaving together economic, legal, social, cultural, and intellectual history, the book describes how Christian writers drew on the story to define and redefine what constituted the proper boundaries of credit in a modern world increasingly dominated by finance.
Nigel Malin
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9781447350163
- eISBN:
- 9781447352273
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447350163.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
This chapter discusses the relevance of neo-liberalism as both an ideology and as a pragmatic approach, defined as a re-making of the state, where the state is not rolled back as such but is ...
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This chapter discusses the relevance of neo-liberalism as both an ideology and as a pragmatic approach, defined as a re-making of the state, where the state is not rolled back as such but is re-shaped, re-configured to better serve the demands of capital. Neo-liberalism represents an attempt to replace political judgement with economic evaluation, including, but not exclusively, the evaluations offered by markets. Writers on this subject such as Davies, Gough, Garrett, Peck, Mirowski and Shaxson are referred to where they address globalisation and audit culture, the logic of markets and economic evaluation. It was believed that the economic pressures generated by neo-liberal globalisation would inexorably lead to welfare state entrenchment or its dissolution and replacement by a lean ‘competition’ state. Yet the global rediscovery of poverty and the challenges to territorially-based conceptions of social rights posed by the increasing flow of migrants have put social policy issues on the social agenda.Less
This chapter discusses the relevance of neo-liberalism as both an ideology and as a pragmatic approach, defined as a re-making of the state, where the state is not rolled back as such but is re-shaped, re-configured to better serve the demands of capital. Neo-liberalism represents an attempt to replace political judgement with economic evaluation, including, but not exclusively, the evaluations offered by markets. Writers on this subject such as Davies, Gough, Garrett, Peck, Mirowski and Shaxson are referred to where they address globalisation and audit culture, the logic of markets and economic evaluation. It was believed that the economic pressures generated by neo-liberal globalisation would inexorably lead to welfare state entrenchment or its dissolution and replacement by a lean ‘competition’ state. Yet the global rediscovery of poverty and the challenges to territorially-based conceptions of social rights posed by the increasing flow of migrants have put social policy issues on the social agenda.
Stuart Hodkinson
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- September 2019
- ISBN:
- 9781526141866
- eISBN:
- 9781526144713
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Manchester University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7228/manchester/9781526141866.001.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Urban and Rural Studies
As the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire has slowly revealed a shadowy background of outsourcing and deregulation, and a council turning a blind eye to health and safety concerns, many questions ...
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As the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire has slowly revealed a shadowy background of outsourcing and deregulation, and a council turning a blind eye to health and safety concerns, many questions need answers. Stuart Hodkinson has those answers. Safe as Houses weaves together Stuart’s research over the last decade with residents’ groups in council regeneration projects across London to provide the first comprehensive account of how Grenfell happened and how it could easily have happened in multiple locations across the country. It draws on different examples of unsafe housing either refurbished or built by private companies under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to show the terrible human consequences of outsourcing and deregulation that have enabled developers, banks, and investors to profiteer from highly lucrative, taxpayer-funded contracts. The book also provides shocking testimonies of how councils and other public bodies have continuously sided with their private partners, doing everything in their power to ignore, deflect, and even silence those who speak out. The book concludes that the only way to end the era of unsafe regeneration and housing provision is to end the disastrous regime of self-regulation for good. This means strengthening safety laws, creating new enforcement agencies independent of government and industry, and replacing PFI and similar models of outsourcing with a new model of public housing that treats the provision of shelter as ‘a social service’ democratically accountable to its residents.Less
As the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire has slowly revealed a shadowy background of outsourcing and deregulation, and a council turning a blind eye to health and safety concerns, many questions need answers. Stuart Hodkinson has those answers. Safe as Houses weaves together Stuart’s research over the last decade with residents’ groups in council regeneration projects across London to provide the first comprehensive account of how Grenfell happened and how it could easily have happened in multiple locations across the country. It draws on different examples of unsafe housing either refurbished or built by private companies under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) to show the terrible human consequences of outsourcing and deregulation that have enabled developers, banks, and investors to profiteer from highly lucrative, taxpayer-funded contracts. The book also provides shocking testimonies of how councils and other public bodies have continuously sided with their private partners, doing everything in their power to ignore, deflect, and even silence those who speak out. The book concludes that the only way to end the era of unsafe regeneration and housing provision is to end the disastrous regime of self-regulation for good. This means strengthening safety laws, creating new enforcement agencies independent of government and industry, and replacing PFI and similar models of outsourcing with a new model of public housing that treats the provision of shelter as ‘a social service’ democratically accountable to its residents.
Rebecca Kolins Givan
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780801450051
- eISBN:
- 9781501706028
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9780801450051.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Health, Illness, and Medicine
This chapter draws on core data from a multiyear case study of the workforce consequences of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The hospital in this case, which was called in the pseudonym ...
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This chapter draws on core data from a multiyear case study of the workforce consequences of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The hospital in this case, which was called in the pseudonym Greenbelt, was viewed as a flagship hospital project by policymakers, investors, and some union representatives. Unlike some PFI hospitals that had serious operational problems from their inception, this hospital was widely perceived to be a success story, representing a smooth transition to public-private hospital financing. One of the first PFI projects completed after the Labour government took power in 1997, it gained a high public profile, and it was a frequent reference point in ongoing discussions of the value of the PFI.Less
This chapter draws on core data from a multiyear case study of the workforce consequences of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The hospital in this case, which was called in the pseudonym Greenbelt, was viewed as a flagship hospital project by policymakers, investors, and some union representatives. Unlike some PFI hospitals that had serious operational problems from their inception, this hospital was widely perceived to be a success story, representing a smooth transition to public-private hospital financing. One of the first PFI projects completed after the Labour government took power in 1997, it gained a high public profile, and it was a frequent reference point in ongoing discussions of the value of the PFI.
Mike Raco
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781447310594
- eISBN:
- 9781447310624
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447310594.003.0005
- Subject:
- Sociology, Population and Demography
This chapter examines the relationships between governance capacities in London and future planning practices in the wake of economic austerity agendas. It describes the complex public-private sector ...
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This chapter examines the relationships between governance capacities in London and future planning practices in the wake of economic austerity agendas. It describes the complex public-private sector entanglements that now exist in the city and the legacies left by earlier rounds of reform that have seen the wide-scale privatisation of welfare assets and services. It discusses the structural limitations that privatisation and private financing have placed on state capacities, and the broader implications of change for the future governance and management of London. It concludes with some reflections on wider understandings of localism, and the importance of asset ownership and management to the future of London's sustainability.Less
This chapter examines the relationships between governance capacities in London and future planning practices in the wake of economic austerity agendas. It describes the complex public-private sector entanglements that now exist in the city and the legacies left by earlier rounds of reform that have seen the wide-scale privatisation of welfare assets and services. It discusses the structural limitations that privatisation and private financing have placed on state capacities, and the broader implications of change for the future governance and management of London. It concludes with some reflections on wider understandings of localism, and the importance of asset ownership and management to the future of London's sustainability.
Stephen Sinclair, Neil McHugh, Leslie Huckfield, Michael Roy, and Cam Donaldson
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781447315568
- eISBN:
- 9781447315582
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447315568.003.0007
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Chapter Seven focuses on efficiency of administration and the mixing of morals and mathematics in the context of the financialisation of everyday life. They examine the development and scope of ...
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Chapter Seven focuses on efficiency of administration and the mixing of morals and mathematics in the context of the financialisation of everyday life. They examine the development and scope of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), a policy instrument designed to extend the role of private finance in welfare provision and delivery, following in the wake of previous efforts to outsource public services and expand the mechanisms for ‘payments by results’. As the authors demonstrate in the UK SIBs represent more than just an expansion of existing privatisation measures; they are part of the financialisation of service provision and delivery, bringing venture capital and the risk calculations and hedging of welfare outcomes to the financial market in an effort to shake up the assumed public sector inertia. As the authors discuss, the assumptions of risk, cost-saving attributes and the measurability of outcomes are all problematic in the financialised framework.Less
Chapter Seven focuses on efficiency of administration and the mixing of morals and mathematics in the context of the financialisation of everyday life. They examine the development and scope of Social Impact Bonds (SIBs), a policy instrument designed to extend the role of private finance in welfare provision and delivery, following in the wake of previous efforts to outsource public services and expand the mechanisms for ‘payments by results’. As the authors demonstrate in the UK SIBs represent more than just an expansion of existing privatisation measures; they are part of the financialisation of service provision and delivery, bringing venture capital and the risk calculations and hedging of welfare outcomes to the financial market in an effort to shake up the assumed public sector inertia. As the authors discuss, the assumptions of risk, cost-saving attributes and the measurability of outcomes are all problematic in the financialised framework.
Richard Green and Jonathan Haskel (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- February 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780226092843
- eISBN:
- 9780226092904
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226092904.003.0003
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, International
In 1979, when Margaret Thatcher came to power, publicly owned companies produced roughly 12 percent of GDP in the United Kingdom. By the time of the election of the Labour government in 1997, this ...
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In 1979, when Margaret Thatcher came to power, publicly owned companies produced roughly 12 percent of GDP in the United Kingdom. By the time of the election of the Labour government in 1997, this figure had fallen to 2 percent. At least in the United Kingdom, public ownership seems to have been discredited. What were the origins of privatization in the United Kingdom? Was the policy the natural outcome of Conservative thinking, or was it a decisive break from the past? Why has privatization proved so enduring? Why is renationalization off the agenda? Did privatization raise productivity in the companies concerned? If it did not, what future steps concerning privatization or the privatized companies can be taken that might improve performance? This chapter addresses these questions. It looks at the privatization of utilities in the country and reviews the evidence on the effects of privatization on productive efficiency, product quality, public-sector labor unions, and attitudes toward privatization. It also examines contracting out and the private finance initiative.Less
In 1979, when Margaret Thatcher came to power, publicly owned companies produced roughly 12 percent of GDP in the United Kingdom. By the time of the election of the Labour government in 1997, this figure had fallen to 2 percent. At least in the United Kingdom, public ownership seems to have been discredited. What were the origins of privatization in the United Kingdom? Was the policy the natural outcome of Conservative thinking, or was it a decisive break from the past? Why has privatization proved so enduring? Why is renationalization off the agenda? Did privatization raise productivity in the companies concerned? If it did not, what future steps concerning privatization or the privatized companies can be taken that might improve performance? This chapter addresses these questions. It looks at the privatization of utilities in the country and reviews the evidence on the effects of privatization on productive efficiency, product quality, public-sector labor unions, and attitudes toward privatization. It also examines contracting out and the private finance initiative.
Kevin Albertson, Chris Fox, Chris O'Leary, and Gary Painter
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- September 2018
- ISBN:
- 9781447340706
- eISBN:
- 9781447340744
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781447340706.001.0001
- Subject:
- Political Science, Public Policy
Over recent years there has been increasing interest in ‘Payment by Results’ (PbR) — Pay for Success (PFS) or outcomes-based funding in the US — as a model for outcomes-based commissioning in the ...
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Over recent years there has been increasing interest in ‘Payment by Results’ (PbR) — Pay for Success (PFS) or outcomes-based funding in the US — as a model for outcomes-based commissioning in the public sector. Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) — Pay for Success financing in the US — are a class of PbR where the finance needed to make the contract work is provided by private finance, rather than the service provider. This short book asks whether and under what circumstances PbR/PFS and SIBs/PSBs are an efficient way to unlock new capital investment and advance social goods. It considers whether PbR/PFS and SIBs/Pay for Success financing drive efficiency and innovation in the delivery of social outcomes, and whether attempts to reconcile corporate profits and social goods may lead to perverse incentives and inefficiency. It also analyses the impact of PbR and SIBs on not-for-profit and smaller players in the market for social outcomes.Less
Over recent years there has been increasing interest in ‘Payment by Results’ (PbR) — Pay for Success (PFS) or outcomes-based funding in the US — as a model for outcomes-based commissioning in the public sector. Social Impact Bonds (SIBs) — Pay for Success financing in the US — are a class of PbR where the finance needed to make the contract work is provided by private finance, rather than the service provider. This short book asks whether and under what circumstances PbR/PFS and SIBs/PSBs are an efficient way to unlock new capital investment and advance social goods. It considers whether PbR/PFS and SIBs/Pay for Success financing drive efficiency and innovation in the delivery of social outcomes, and whether attempts to reconcile corporate profits and social goods may lead to perverse incentives and inefficiency. It also analyses the impact of PbR and SIBs on not-for-profit and smaller players in the market for social outcomes.
Mike Raco
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748682973
- eISBN:
- 9781474406475
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748682973.003.0002
- Subject:
- Political Science, Political Theory
This chapter focuses on the legacies of privatisation in key welfare sectors in the UK, and the structural limits that Public Private Partnerships and Private Finance Initiatives place on their ...
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This chapter focuses on the legacies of privatisation in key welfare sectors in the UK, and the structural limits that Public Private Partnerships and Private Finance Initiatives place on their governance and management. It contends that the principles of accountability and democracy that underpinned the post-war settlement are being systematically eroded at the same time as administrations have consistently promised greater community empowerment and control. The discussion looks, in particular, at the role of the ‘new contractualism’ in shaping the boundaries of the political and in seeking to limit the scope and scale of urban conflict. It examines the extent to which this is occurring and the implications of the findings for broader understandings of the ‘political’.Less
This chapter focuses on the legacies of privatisation in key welfare sectors in the UK, and the structural limits that Public Private Partnerships and Private Finance Initiatives place on their governance and management. It contends that the principles of accountability and democracy that underpinned the post-war settlement are being systematically eroded at the same time as administrations have consistently promised greater community empowerment and control. The discussion looks, in particular, at the role of the ‘new contractualism’ in shaping the boundaries of the political and in seeking to limit the scope and scale of urban conflict. It examines the extent to which this is occurring and the implications of the findings for broader understandings of the ‘political’.