Carillion has withdrawn from running its libraries contract in Hounslow. I suspect this has something to do with its dire financial position, which has seen its Chief Executive quit. The firm is likely to be exiting non-core businesses and running libraries is a relatively new and small area for it. Hounslow has been developing a policy of taking services in-house (e.g. rubbish collections) for some time now, so this is a natural enough extension of that.
The news is significant for public libraries outside Hounslow as it also runs libraries in Croydon, Ealing and Harrow (Ealing and Harrow in a linked contract). Those Councils will now need to decide how to react. At one stage Brent was mooted as being included in the Ealing/Harrow contract. Deciding not to do that has dodged a bullet for Brent.
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