Value for money should be the touchstone for the delivery of public services. Public service providers are continually looking for ways in which to improve performance and reduce costs. However, it is not always easy to baseline the costs being targeted and to monitor the successful implementation of cost reduction programmes. To do so requires, first and foremost, an effective finance function.
Some key questions for our ‘Delivering public services cost-effectively’ research programme include:
How can finance functions provide better information with which to manage performance and cost, improve utilisation of assets and simplify activities?
What contribution can shared services, outsourcing and partnering make to the goal of strategic cost management?
Housing associations play an increasingly important role in today’s UK housing market. They are leading suppliers of affordable homes, major partners in regeneration and estate renewal, and providers of a wide range of vital welfare services to the most vulnerable in our communities.
The drop in lending due to the credit squeeze and the sharp reduction in private new-build have increased the pressure on housing associations to maintain the flow of affordable homes in all areas of the country.
Against this backdrop of macroeconomic uncertainty and tighter constraints on public spending and private lending, we examine the funding considerations that follow from these policy changes and challenges. In particular, we look at and discuss the options for new and innovative ways to utilize housing association assets and financing capacity.
Across the globe, governments are increasingly turning to the private sector to fund critical infrastructure developments. Whether in the energy, environmental, transport or social infrastructure sectors, the private sector is funding the infrastructure assets which provide core public services.
At a time when governments are facing greater financial constraints than ever before, and should be turning to the private sector to meet the infrastructure funding gap, the financial markets are in turmoil due to the credit crunch.
What is the credit crunch, how has it affected the infrastructure markets, and what is the outlook for the future? One year on from the beginning of the credit crunch, we explore some of the issues surrounding the infrastructure marketplace and consider the impact of the credit crunch on the market's future.
What kind of care system does the UK want, why and for whom? This is the focus for a major new report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) on the UK care system, supported by PwC. The report puts forward proposals for a new care system, looking across the range of services that support adults with care needs and their carers and families. The paper outlines how local services could be more personal and joined-up to enable all individuals, families and communities to flourish. The paper also suggests where the UK should go next on individual budgets, support for carers, and community engagement in services.
Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) is experiencing unprecedented levels of activity in projects aimed at modernising public and social infrastructure, as the region works to meet its estimated €500bn total infrastructure investment need. This paper provides a brief background on current developments in the infrastructure sector in the CEE region, highlights several major upcoming opportunities, outlines the key practical challenges in bidding for these projects successfully and shares lessons learnt from our experience on how to deliver them. In addition to providing a backdrop on infrastructure activity in the CEE region overall, the paper focuses on five major territories where PPP opportunities are the most plentiful - Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and the Czech Republic.
Our new annual study, 'Regulate & Collaborate: Government and the Global CEO', compares and contrasts the viewpoints of CEOs and top-level government officials on regulation and the extent of collaboration between the public and private sectors and comments on the extent of government-to-government collaboration, the global challenge of climate change and the future for public-private relationships. This report builds upon PricewaterhouseCoopers prestigious Annual Global CEO Survey, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, which for the first time this year includes views from an international sample of public sector leaders as well as those from business CEOs.
This publication looks at the impact of the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in the light of the impending adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) by the UK Government from 2008/2009 onwards. The new standards are likely to bring most PFI projects on balance sheet and so the accounting driver for public bodies to procure projects through PFI will disappear.
The paper asks whether this matters. Has PFI brought about the benefits hoped for? To the extent it has, what has been the contribution of private finance? How important is the 'F' in 'PFI'? And will the impending accounting changes actually open up the way towards structuring projects more effectively?
The UK Government, in both its 2007 Sub-National Review of Economic Development and Regeneration and 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review, has proposed a range of new local financing tools that place a premium on local innovation in order to address its current infrastructure funding gap. We have been working with the Centre for Cities to explore how these and other new financial tools can help unlock greater infrastructure investment - which is critical to securing sustainable growth in our cities and towns. This new survey captures the market’s views and attitudes towards greater financial devolution in funding infrastructure investment.
Public sector leaders around the world face a common set of challenges if their services are to meet the increased expectations of their customers – both citizens and businesses. This study identifies these challenges and shares lessons learnt, from examples around the world, to offer a structured approach in support of public sector leaders in their work to improve public services and deliver on the customer promise.
Supplementary Business Rates (SBRs) have recently been proposed as a mechanism to allow cities to generate additional funds for infrastructure investment. This paper presents new analysis that illustrates their possible contribution and the main challenges that must be tackled by city leaders, business and central government if SBRs are to finance local growth. It is part of the joint City Solutions project we are undertaking in the UK with Centre for Cities.
How should we define UK public services and what aims should we have for them? We have been supporting this ippr project which revisits the case for the reform of public services in the UK and charts a way ahead. It argues that public service reform should now focus on getting the relationships right between central and local government, services and their workforce, citizens and public service users. This requires not just a change of approach on the part of central government, but a new a new set of bargains and responsibilities on all sides, with information and accountability at the heart of a new system of public service improvement. The report is being published as a contribution to the debate in the run-up to the Comprehensive Spending Review.
NLGN report
PwC supported a project with the New Local Government Network in the UK to develop proposals for improving how local authorities harness investment from Government, the private sector, the EU and RDAs for capital projects.The proposals are now published in a report which examines how to simplify the grant funding framework. It goes to the heart of the ongoing debate on new “localism” in the UK – how to enable local government to have the capacity and flexibility to meet the challenge of financing future economic development.
The study adopts a wide definition of economic development that covers all of the aspects that drive both the economic competitiveness of local areas and creating the sense of place required to deliver sustainable and inclusive communities.
Are outsourcing contracts delivering benefits for the public sector? PricewaterhouseCoopers addresses the questions surrounding the delivery of UK public sector outsourcing programmes.
Pay in the UK public sector should be better aligned with the needs of public services in order to increase efficiency and provide a motivated workforce. The design of pay progression and performance pay should be based on the jobs people are doing and those jobs should be based on the service delivery models within which they are working. We believe the over-centralised decision making prevents this from happening. It also means that inadequate account is taken of market rates of pay, including the different levels of pay which should be applied in different parts of the UK.
Hansard Society report
On 4 July 2006, the Hansard Society published The fiscal maze: Parliament, government and public money, which looks at how the UK Parliament holds government to account for the money it raises and it spends on our behalf. The report argues that Parliament’s scrutiny of taxation, expenditure and public services is fundamental to our political system but that Parliament could and should do more to make an impact and secure full accountability from government.
Hansard Society report
UK Parliament is responsible for authorising and scrutinising over £500 billion of public expenditure. This interim paper, part of a major study by the Hansard Society, considers how effectively this work is carried out. Inside the Counting House highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the current system ahead of a larger final report, published in spring 2006, which identifies options for reform.
Social Market Foundation report
This report is a thorough examination of the UK Government’s use of targets in four public services: education, health, housing and the criminal justice system. The report sets out the design flaws in the current targets regime but concludes, however, that these flaws are the result of specific design problems. This report presents a range of practical proposals to improve the way in which targets are designed in the future. These are illustrated with a definition of a "good target", encapsulating the principles of how, and when, targets should be set.
The pressure to achieve value for money is coming at UK local government from all sides. Central government is determined that public services have to become both more effective and efficient. Tax payers are reluctant to see their taxes increase. Competing demands for priority services such as education and social services mean that local authorities have to manage their resources to meet citizen expectations.
