The Public Service Users Bill is an opportunity for Lib Dems to show whose side they’re on

This article by We Own It director Cat Hobbs was first published in Lib Dem Voice.

In 2011, Nick Clegg strongly backed the government’s ‘open public services’ agenda. In practice, this was used as a figleaf for outsourcing everything from prisons, probation and the NHS to council services. Corporations like G4S, Serco, Atos and Capita have won billions of pounds in contracts yet they are hugely unpopular with the public and the scandals keep coming.

Clegg also promised to ‘take a hard line against the kind of blanket privatisation which was pursued by governments in the past’. Yet the coalition has sold off the Royal Mail, the blood plasma supplier, the search and rescue service, the student loan book…the list goes on. It couldn’t get much more blanket. Meanwhile, rail fares and energy bills rise and rise.

While Clegg talked of ‘modernisation’, this feels more like a dark age for public service users, where we are ripped off, ignored and locked out of the decision-making process at every turn.

What would re-establish the Lib Dems as a party for public service users? How can we give people a real say in the public services that they use and pay for?

We Own It is a new organisation which aims to stand up for the rights of public service users. We’re asking Lib Dems to commit to a Public Service Users Bill in your 2015 election manifesto.

This Bill would give public service users a right to be consulted about services. Crucially, we’d be consulted before they are privatised or outsourced (supported by 78% of Lib Dem voters). The public would get a say over Danny Alexander’s plan to sell off further billions of public assets.

The Bill would give us rights vis-a-vis the private companies running our public services, forcing them to be transparent and respond to Freedom Of Information requests (supported by 93% of Lib Dem voters). We would have a right to recall them when they do a bad job (supported by 90% of Lib Dem voters).

The Bill would require government to look at public ownership first (supported by 65% of Lib Dem voters). There would always be an in-house bid when services are contracted out (supported by 83% of Lib Dem voters). Organisations with a social purpose – cooperatives, genuine mutuals, social enterprise, charities – would be promoted above private companies in the bidding process (supported by 68% of Lib Dem voters).

The Lib Dems have an opportunity to commit to a Public Service Users Bill and show they’re serious about modernisation, accountability and openness. As consumers, people expect to have some rights. As public service users, people expect high quality services and fewer (or no) scandals. As taxpayers, they expect transparency about how their money is being spent. As citizens of a democratic country, they expect to have a voice.

We would love to hear from Lib Dems who want to embrace this agenda and stand up for the people who use public services.