Alan Downey

Open public services: now comes the hard bit

12 July 2011 | Alan Downey

After the launch of its public services white paper the government needs to specify which services will be opened up and how competition will be put into effect Read more

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Black hole in Green review, by Alan Downey

13 October 2010 | Alan Downey

Sir Philip Green has highlighted numerous examples of waste resulting from poor procurement practice within government. The big problem he identifies is that departments act as a series of independent purchasers, with little or no co-ordination. As a result, the government fails to leverage its buying power, and there are significant price variations across departments for common items, including fixed and mobile telecoms, printing, travel and hotel booking, office supplies, laptops, IT services and vehicle hire. Read more...

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For those reasons, we’re in, by Alan Downey

16 September 2010 | Alan Downey

Ministers’ support for mutuals will give budding entrepreneurs the opportunity to change public service provision for good Read more...

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Employment enigma, by Alan Downey

10 August 2010 | Alan Downey

It seems that there is a stark disparity between public and private sector employers in terms of their employment and redundancy intentions. Read more...

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A radical blueprint for public sector reform, by Alan Downey

21 June 2010 | Alan Downey

By now it is clear that Chancellor George Osborne will announce steep tax rises and outline spending cuts that will be pretty horrendous. The good news is that the government is taking the task to reduce the enormous budget deficit seriously. Read more...

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The penny drops, by Alan Downey

29 April 2010 | Alan Downey

It seems that public sector employers have finally woken up to the scale of the financial challenge that is coming their way. Read more...

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Labour pains, by Alan Downey

16 February 2010 | Alan Downey

KPMG and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development have just published their quarterly Labour Market Outlook survey of over 700 employers from the private and public sector. It paints a bleak picture. Despite the UK’s emergence from recession, it predicts more redundancies and a substantial fall in employment intentions in the public sector for the next quarter. Read more...

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The recession question, by Alan Downey

26 January 2010 | Alan Downey

It is clearly good news that the UK economy has finally emerged from recession – albeit only just.  At the same time, there must be some trepidation among those working in the public sector that the starting gun has been fired on a public sector recession that is likely to last for several years.  It is now only a matter of time before we are faced with the deepest and most prolonged cuts in public expenditure that anyone can remember. Read more...

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Health and deficiency, by Alan Downey

25 September 2009 | Alan Downey

The Taxpayers’ Alliance has continued its assault on what it sees as profligate public spending, this time with a report arguing that many NHS Trusts are underusing expensive equipment. Read more...

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Savings a necessity, but not like this, by Alan Downey

11 September 2009 | Alan Downey

I think the basic premise of the Institute of Directors/Taxpayers Alliance report,  How to save £50bn, is virtually impossible to argue with. As the authors observe: ‘We are facing a fiscal crisis of historic proportions’, and there will have to be a substantial reduction in public expenditure over a period of several years. There is now a cross-party consensus about the need for cuts, even if there is disagreement and lack of clarity about their scale and timing and where they should fall. Read more...

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