One Barnet Propaganda

The Guardian seem to have fallen for a propaganda line being out out in support of the One Barnet privatisation.  The original article was followed up by another from one of the leading consultant firms in the contract.

All this looks way too smart for the hapless Barnet Tories.  It looks as if the powerful corporate interests involved have decided they need to popularise the idea of large scale privatisation.  The main problems with the One Barnet approach are:

1) It locks the Council into a relationship with one supplier for a vast range of services for a long period.  Whoever wins the Council in 2014 will be bound by the contracts just signed.  Unless Capita have been very foolish, they will have all sorts of provisions to protect their profit margins.  Any new administration will find it hard to more than tinker with the arrangements.  For example, if a future Labour administration wanted to introduce a Living Wage arrangement, I imagine Capita could simply say no.

2). The contract covers such a broad range of services that it will be very hard to relet it in a competitive market.  Very few companies can take on such size and complexity, which means that Capita has an effective monopoly for the foreseeable future.  The difficulty of winning any future procurement will probably put off any other companies from even attempting it.

3). As there are commercial arrangements involved, it is likely that access to information will be severely restricted in comparison to conventional public sector arrangements.  Commercial confidentiality is a recognised reason for refusing FoI requests.