Head of local government services at Prospect Law. Expert at stabilising and improving troubled services and repairing failures in governance. Non-exec director for local authority trading companies.
The NHS crisis
"Allowing the privatisation of council care homes has been a scandalous waste of money yet nothing has been done to end it."
Simon Jenkins in today's Guardian.
What if there was a way for local government to take care and special education assets back into public ownership?
Even with currently high interest rates, which will be with us for another couple of years for sure, the financing costs would be less than the cash wasted on private equity operators' profit margins.
And it's hard to see any other route to adequate pay for care workers, which is an essential component of reform.
Reform that requires collaboration at scale.
Can local government do this?