Member Article

Greater Manchester firms visit Downing Street

Three businesses from Oldham, Rochdale and Salford have attended a special reception at 10 Downing Street.

Oldham Community Leisure, Rochdale Boroughwide Housing and Let’s Go Global are among a hundred new British businesses to have spun out from the public sector, delivering nearly £1.5 billion of public services.

Speaking at a Downing Street reception to mark the milestone, Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude described how mutuals now employ 35,000 people and have generated over 3,000 additional jobs in the last three years alone.

Public service mutuals are organisations which have left the public sector but continue to deliver public services. Employees, who know their service best, play a significant role in their operation. Employee control improves productivity, staff morale and innovation which leads to better services for users, greater value for money for taxpayers and drives local growth.

The Cabinet Office has a £10 million programme which has helped secure the UK’s status as a global leader in mutuals. The programme offers public sector employees professional expertise and advice to help them spin out.

Minister for the Cabinet Office Francis Maude said: “As part of our long-term plan for a stronger economy, we are determined to drive up public sector productivity, which flat-lined from 1997 to 2010. We need innovative new ways of delivering better services for less money, so we are helping public sector workers spin out to form mutuals.

“There are now 100 public sector mutuals across England and Wales. These are new businesses, employing 35,000 people and delivering services from community health to libraries. We know this is just the beginning of a massive transformation – we have even had interest from a fire service looking to mutualise.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .