The Conservative-controlled council’s proposed ‘Change Programme’ will result in the “wholesale privatisation” of services, and will be “a disaster for Southampton”, claims Test MP Alan Whitehead. But the deputy leader of the council says “it is absolutely not about privatising services”.
Alan Whitehead MP says that the implication of a newly-published “Change Programme” (pdf download) is that the council will no longer provide services in-house, but will simply commission them. [Page 4, item 8].
This, he claims, would mean hundreds of jobs would be lost, services to residents would be under threat and restructuring and consultancy costs would be sky-high.
“If these proposals go through, it will be a disaster for our city,” said Dr Whitehead. “In addition to the massive potential job losses, this will cause utter chaos in council services and fatally undermine the vital role the council is supposed to play in making sure local services work in the interests of local people - all for no clear gain in terms of service delivery.”
“There may well be a case for sharing services with other councils on a case-by-case basis, but that is very different from an arbitrary declaration that all council services will be outsourced, regardless of their efficiency or how many people rely on them.”
“Citizens need to wake up”
Meanwhile the Unite union said the council is pushing through its proposals to become primarily a commissioning body without public consultation.
“If this plan goes ahead many of the council's services will be done by private companies by 2015,” said regional officer Ian Woodland. “Southampton's citizens need to wake up to what is being planned without the necessary public consultation.
“This will mean an inferior standard of services for the public with many city council jobs being lost as private companies drive down costs and cut corners on services to maximise shareholder profits.”
“Not about privatising services”
But deputy leader of the Conservative council Jeremy Moulton said that it’s critical that the council looks at new ways of working in order to protect services and meet the challenge of reduced budgets:
“If we don't deliver the change programme the council will be faced with having to make significant forced cuts to services to balance the books,” he said. “If we deliver it we can meet the financial challenge and continue to deliver good services. It is absolutely not about privatising services.
“The private sector does have a role to play in delivering services and we have some excellent partnerships, such as the highways partnership with Balfour Beatty and our leisure partnership. We are also looking to work more closely with other councils to deliver more for less… and considering other radical forms of service delivery such as local authority trading companies and even co-ops and mutuals.
Cllr Moulton said that the council had engaged proactively with unions and he was disappointed that they wanted to use this “as an opportunity to stoke up concern amongst staff and customers”.
“We want to work constructively with the unions to meet the challenges ahead. That is the best way to ensure we provide good quality services for residents in the city,” he said.
• The council's Change Programme is due to be discussed by the full council on Wednesday, November 16.