Revealed: politicians out of touch on privatisation

PRESS RELEASE

New analysis highlights the huge gulf between the British public and politicians when it comes to privatisation and outsourcing.

Campaign group We Own It has released a scorecard comparing party policies with public opinion along a number of indicators. It looks at political parties including the Conservatives, Labour, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Green Party and UKIP. 

The interactive infographic compares public opinion and party policies on a range of public services such as the NHS, rail, energy, water and Royal Mail, as well as the little known Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (which would make it difficult for governments to defend public services in the future).

The analysis looks at policies promoting transparency, accountability, social value and value for money in outsourcing contracts, and at the idea of a Public Service Users Bill which includes such policies within it. We Own It is campaigning for the Bill to be included in all party election manifestos.

The public is consistently more in favour of a voice for public service users and public ownership than the major parties. The scorecard highlights the discrepancies.
For example, 79% of the public wants to be consulted before services are privatised or outsourced. Yet only Plaid Cymru and the Greens seem to be considering such a policy.
68% of the public believes energy should be in public ownership. Yet only one party mentions this as an option.

Cat Hobbs, Director at We Own It said: “It is astonishing to see just how out of touch politicians are. So many of them insist that private is more efficient despite all the evidence to the contrary. Yet the rest of us, who use and pay for public services, mostly want to see them being run for people, not for profit. There are lots of popular policies which politicians could take on, if they decided to listen to voters instead of vested corporate interests. We're looking forward to seeing how the parties respond.”

We Own It is calling on its supporters to sign mass letters to the party manifesto writers calling for a Public Service Users Bill. The Bill would promote transparency and accountability, the in-house option and people before profit.

76 MPs have now backed Early Day Motion 438 in favour of the Public Service Users Bill, including Labour, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru, SNP and Green MPs.

Previous We Own It research showed that voters would be more likely to vote for a party promoting public ownership by a ratio of 4:1.