Labour reveal true cost
of ConDem £4billion privatisation plans for the ‘North of Tyne’ public services
‘Time for Northumberland Liberals and
Conservatives to admit they were wrong over ‘Impower Report’ and to apologise
to the thousands of council employees who lost their jobs under ConDems’.
Labour politicians in Northumberland have expressed outrage
as it emerged that the former Liberal Democrat administration which was
supported by Northumberland’s Conservatives planned to join up with then
Conservative led North Tyneside Council to ‘flog public services North of the
Tyne’. They’re pointing to misleading claims made at the time by the member who
was in charge of piloting the programme through the council as evidence of an
‘orchestrated attempt to mislead the public and employees’. Councillor Andrew
Tebbutt who has been described as the ‘portfolio holder for privatisation’
issued a series of briefings based on the council funded ‘Impower report’. The
briefings have been described as ‘misleading’ and ‘partial’.
It has now emerged that Northumberland and North Tyneside
Council’s wanted to include Northumbria Healthcare Trust in the mass
privatisation which would have been worth over £4billion and would have
resulted in job losses between 1850 and 3500 council employees in
Northumberland alone.
Northumberland Liberal Democrats identified 35 services which
would have formed the first part of the huge mass privatisation and would have
been completed in Dec 2013 if Labour had not formed an administration in May
2013.
Labour are pointing out that one of its most successful
policies since that election in 2013 would not have possible under the ConDem
privatisation plans as car parking would have been privatised and free parking
would have been impossible to deliver. They believe that Conservative
politicians should explain why they were promising free parking while seemingly
supporting the privatisation of parking behind the scenes.
Labour have tabled a motion to Full Council on 3 Dec 2014
setting out the case for public services which are properly accountable to the
people who use them and are not run for a private profit and are challenging
Lib Dems and Conservatives in advance of the meeting to rule out any future
plans to privatise services in the county.
Councillor Laura
Pidcock who tabled the motion said
“North of the Tyne public services were being fattened up for
privatisation under the previous ConDem coalition in County Hall. This
£4billion plus contract would have given the private sector companies involved
a yearly profit of over £40m with thousands of council jobs lost. The Lib Dems
own figures said that the county’s private sector would lose 34 jobs for every
100 public sector jobs lost so this would have been a truly tragic double whammy
for hundreds of Northumberland families. The Liberals and Conservatives have a
chance to back our motion which would commit future council’s to halt any
planned privatisation unless they made a detailed case to the county’s
residents first. They have to show they’ve learned from their mistakes.”
NOTES FOR EDITORS
·
The
suggested duration of the ‘partnership’ with the private sector was 10 years –
therefore the total estimated value of the ‘contract’ to be tendered in March
2013 was (total x 10)
·
Total
estimated 3rd Party spend which was also due to be included in
contract as evidenced in ‘Impower report’ was £295m per year
|
Service
|
Employees[1]
|
Gross 12/13 expenditure
|
Total income
|
|
ICT Services
|
97.00
|
£5,723,660
|
£545,750
|
|
Financial Services
|
165.23
|
£5,477,600
|
£415,080
|
|
HR & Employee Services
|
40.63
|
£1,041,240
|
£79,250
|
|
Front Office
|
199.24
|
£7,509,250
|
£1,599,300
|
|
Procurement
|
17.40
|
£654,580
|
£325,770
|
|
Property Services & FM
|
506.44
|
£13,897,740
|
£7,977,530
|
|
Transport
|
87.16
|
£8,889,240
|
£27,500
|
|
Highways & Engineering
|
267.00
|
£16,472,300
|
£330,800
|
|
Neighbourhood Services
|
263.52
|
£10,147,280
|
£1,409,330
|
|
Sub-total
|
1643.64
|
£69,812,890
|
£12,710,310
|
|
3rd party “addressable” spend[2]
|
0
|
£295,000,000
|
£0
|
|
Total
|
1643.64
|
£364,812,890
|
£12,710,310
|
First wave of privatisation under Lib Dems PG 9 - 93
ICT Services
1. Information
Service Group
2. Information
& Applications
3. Infrastructure
Financial Services
4. Head
of Financial Services
5. Transactions
Management
6. Accounts
Payable
7. Accounts
Receivable
8. Pensions
Administration
9. Council
Tax and NNDR
10. Benefits
Service (excluding Fraud Investigations)
11. Insurance
Administration
12. Cashiers
13. Systems
Administration (AP, AR, Employee Services)
14. Revenues
& Benefits Management
15. Alnwick
and Berwick databases
16. Area
Management
17. Quality
Assurance
18. Business
Systems
HR & Employee
Services
19. Employee
Services (including Payroll)
Front Office Services
20. Libraries
21. Tourist
Information Centres
22. Customer
Access Points
23. Customer
Services
Procurement
24. Procurement
Admin – Sourcing & Requisitioning
25. Category
management & Controllable 3rd Party Spend
Property Services &
FM
26. Property
& Estates Services (excludes Land & Assets)
27. Facilities
Management
28. Schools
Crossing Patrols
Transport
29. Fleet
Management
30. Parking
Highways &
Engineering
31. Highways
Services
32. Engineering
Services
33. Street
Lighting
Neighbourhood Services
34. Street
Scene
35. Countryside
|
PUBLIC BODY
|
VALUE
|
TOTAL
|
|
Northumberland County Council
represented by Lib Dems
|
£364,812,890
x 10 years
|
£3.65billion
|
|
North Tyneside Council represented by
Conservatives
|
£26m
x 10 years
|
£260million
|
|
Northumbria Healthcare Trust
|
£30m
x 10 years
|
£300million
|
|
|
|
£4.21billion
|
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