Does a low carbon economy require big sacrifices in economic growth? Are large cuts in emissions technologically feasible? This PricewaterhouseCoopers report, which updates an earlier analysis in 2006, addresses these and other burning issues and concludes that global carbon emissions could more than double by 2050 in a 'business as usual' scenario, but in fact need to be cut by around a half by that date in order to stabilise atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide at acceptable levels. The report comments on some of the key conditions needed to achieve this without undue economic costs, including the global pricing of emissions through an appropriate mix of carbon markets and carbon taxes and the role of governments in setting clear long-term targets for reducing global emissions. The report argues that action is needed now on a wide range of fronts such as increased energy efficiency, greater use of renewables and nuclear power, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and reversing deforestation.
Transformation is about systemic and fundamental change. But what does this mean in practice? At the heart of the transformation agenda for many countries is the need to deliver customer-focused services more efficiently. Public services need to be designed around the needs of the user – not the provider – and be provided through modern, co-ordinated delivery channels. Fundamentally, such transformation requires collaboration. To address this issue, we have recently completed an international survey (jointly with UK think tank, Demos) on the barriers and enablers to the co-design of public services.The survey focuses on the practical issues associated with the use of co-design as an approach to achieve more customer-centric 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.
Efforts by business, governments and non-governmental organisations in the last decade have given the fight against corruption considerable momentum. But significant challenges lie ahead. Confronting corruption: The business case for an effective anti-corruption programme is a PricewaterhouseCoopers report that examines what companies are currently doing to manage the risk of corruption, what steps they should take to better protect themselves in the future and the vital roles both Government and business have to play: governments to implement and enforce anti-corruption measures, business to implement and vigorously enforce anti-corruption programmes.
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.
This unique joint study by PwC's Tax practice and the World Bank compares tax regimes in 178 countries around the world, and ranks them according to the relative ease of paying taxes by focusing on the number of tax payments a company has to make, the time it takes to comply and the total tax rate, in order to determine the overall ease of paying taxes. The study uses the methodology of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Total Tax Contribution framework which is designed to help companies identify their true tax contribution, either in a particular country or on a global basis.
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.
What kind of welfare state does the UK want ten years from now? And how might we get there? These key areas of research are explored in this ippr report, supported by PwC. The report, a collection of essays, sets out what a new approach might look like and how it would operate. The essays make the case for a welfare system based on a fair contract between the state, citizens and civil society, leading the way to greater personalisation of services with more people supported off benefits and into work.
This report is a summary of the findings from a participative workshop which took place in the UK to explore the experiences of young people moving in and out of employment. Participants' views were sought on a new service that means that they only have to register their changes of circumstances once, rather than to multiple government agencies. Senior civil servants also participated in this workshop which provided them first hand experience of customer insight research.
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.
Organisations, whether private or public, are increasingly recognising the importance of information security awareness. This report assesses the impact and success of security awareness initiatives in different organisations in Europe, analyses how organisations are approaching information security awareness and the measurement of effectiveness. It focuses on cultural change, the ways in which sets of metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) can pay off, and how assessing methods can contribute to the development of a wider culture of security.
Placements abroad and transnational mobility expose young people to new ways of thinking and working. This report sets out the case for supporting the mobility of young people and apprentices in initial vocational education and training (IVET). It researches the existing vocational training systems in Europe in order to identify the obstacles to the more general uptake at European level of transnational mobility leading to qualifications and some potential solutions.
The appetite for addressing climate change has never been greater and with the publication of the Climate Change Bill and the energy white paper, the direction of current UK Government policy is now clearer. While views are regularly expressed by consumers and individual businesses, there is a lack of hard and fast evidence on business opinion in this area. To understand the perceptions of business, PricewaterhouseCoopers commissioned a survey of companies across a wide spectrum of industries to understand business’ views of the UK Government’s use of tax and regulation to manage the environmental impact of business.
What are the best options for a single working-age benefit that actively supports welfare-to-work policy? PwC is supporting an ippr project investigating citizen-centric welfare. The report is being issued by chapter. Following on from the release of a chapter exploring what a fair welfare contract might look like and what it would take to achieve one, this chapter shows that how the current system presents barriers to people who want to move into work and proposes one flat rate benefit for people out of work in place the multiple benefits and allowances currently available in the UK.
This chapter forms part of a report It's all about you: citizen-centred welfare, edited by ippr’s Jim Bennett and Graeme Cooke, to be published in September 2007.
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.
At the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly hosted by the German EU Presidency in Wiesbaden from 23-27 June 2007, PricewaterhouseCoopers officially released an independent report entitled "Sustainability impact assessment of the Economic Partnership agreements (EPAs) between the EU and the ACP countries". This study, conducted by a consortium led by PricewaterhouseCoopers (including Maeander Ltd. and the NGOs GRET and Forum pour l’Afrique) at the request of the European Commission, not only evaluates the economic impact, but also looks at environmental and social consequences of future trade deals between the EU and the ACP and concludes that changes in trade alone, will not necessarily lead to sustainable development.
The HOPE VI programme in the USA has pioneered a unique public-private approach to mixed communities that has resulted in housing developments that are viable, attractive to the market and third party investors, and sustainable over the long term.
PwC worked with the Partnership for New York City (PfNYC) to co-develop this study, which analyses global cities and the opportunities they offer to businesses. In the study, titled Cities of opportunity: business-readiness indicators for the 21st century, we compare 11 cities -- Atlanta, Chicago, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Toronto -- using a consistent set of 32 variables that we believe are relevant to a global city of opportunity today.
PwC’s second annual international development conference was held on 22 November 2006. The conference was attended by over 180 delegates from public, private and voluntary sectors who work in international development agencies to reform the public sectors in developing and transitioning countries.
The objective of the conference was to discuss ways to bridge the gap between the strategic intent and design of development programmes and to seek innovative approaches to implementation and delivery on the ground.
Cities tend to be ranked in size according to their populations, but to assess the relative size of their economies we also need to take account of their average income per capita levels. Doing this in a consistent and comprehensive way at a global level is challenging, but in this extract from PwC's UK Economic Outlook - March 2007 we have combined data from a number of reputable sources (e.g. the OECD, the UN and the World Bank as well as national statistical agencies) to produce a ranking by GDP at Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) exchange rates of the largest 100 urban economies in the world in 2005.
Pressure for the US federal government to protect the personal data and privacy of the American public is stronger than ever. The likelihood of privacy breaches occurring has increased with the enhanced portability of data on laptops, flash drives, cell phones, and other mobile devices. Mistakes in information security now have severe ramifications, including damage to public trust and the high cost of an often lengthy recovery period. As a result, senior executives at federal agencies are now wrestling with how to design and effectively implement comprehensive, strategic privacy programs. PricewaterhouseCoopers Washington Federal Practice, along with the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), recently examined the federal government’s progress in implementing privacy programs.
A new report by PricewaterhouseCoopers on Building trust in emissions reporting highlights the key characteristics of the world's main emission trading schemes, presents a new vision for compliance in emissions trading and calls for global action to develop this.
Following the publication of the UK Government's White Paper, 'Strong and Prosperous Communities', PricewaterhouseCoopers has produced a commentary report Delivery on the double. Our analysis aims to take the local government debate further, towards the practical – and often difficult – delivery issues that will need to be tackled to make the policies outlined in the White Paper work.
IPPR report
A combination of rising levels of car ownership and increasing travel by car has led to two major problems associated with road transport for the UK: growing levels of congestion and increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which already form a significant proportion of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Road pricing – the variable charging of road space by time and location – could be useful in successfully combating these problems. But, despite a broad ‘elite’-level consensus on the principle of road pricing in the UK, public attitude arguably remains the key barrier to its introduction.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has interviewed a number of CIOs worldwide to obtain their views on IT Governance, their experience in implementing IT Governance, and what it takes to make IT Governance work.
Increased mobility lies at the heart of the EU's Lisbon Strategy to address the challenges of globalisation and technological change and increase competitiveness. As its contribution to the European Year of Workers' Mobility, PwC revisited our 2001 research study "Managing Mobility Matters - a European Perspective, 2001" to see the extent to which issues such as barriers/incentives to mobility, the impact of evolving policy and the outlook to 2010 had changed.
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.
Paying taxes — the global picture, jointly published by PricewaterhouseCoopers and The World Bank Group, looks at the relative ease of paying taxes in 175 countries worldwide.
Results from the world's largest information security study are in. Responses to The State of Information Security 2006, a worldwide study by CIO Magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers, reveal that while companies are doing a better job of safeguarding information security and privacy, there is still plenty of room for growth and improvement. Conducted online from April 5, 2006 through May 22, 2006, the survey included responses from 7,791 readers of CIO and CSO Magazines in 50 countries.
The rapid economic growth of emerging countries such as China and India — together with continued more moderate growth in today’s advanced economies — could have serious long-term consequences for global energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Without strong leaders, there are no strong nations. Although this has been true since time immemorial, never in recent history has the need for outstanding government leaders been more acute than it is today .In the midst of global political uncertainty and threats to national security, the US government urgently needs leaders who think creatively, develop effective strategy and respond with speed and competence to high-pressure situations.
Demos report
Drawing on over 50 interviews with service innovators from the private and voluntary sectors in the UK The journey to the interface makes the case for a fresh approach to public service reform – an approach that is less about competition and contestability, and more about closing the gap between what people want and need, and what service organisations do.
Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) and Executive Agencies in the UK are vital to the development, regulation and delivery of UK public services. This survey contains the views of nearly 100 Chief Executives of NDPBs and agencies on the challenges they face and what is being done to meet them.
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.
In this issue of Insight*, we explore a variety of topics, among them ‘Enhancing value from public expenditure’, ‘The Sarbanes-Oxley Act – lessons for the public sector’, ‘Achieving the millennium development goals in Africa’ ‘Laying the foundation for development in Southern Sudan’, and ‘Africa and corruption – how a little something is dangerous for your wealth’.
PricewaterhouseCoopers reveals the results of its global survey of PPP activity and makes recommendations for further streamlining of the procurement process.
With better public services at the heart of government agendas, the need for private sector involvement in the delivery and management of these services has intensified. According to this paper, greater efficiencies and effectiveness can be delivered directly to the heart of public services through the emulation and development of private sector partnering practices.
NLGN report
The extension of the Lyons Inquiry to include the role and function of local UK government carries both opportunity and challenge. The opportunity is to tackle longstanding and fundamental dilemmas in local governance in circumstances where lasting reform is possible. The challenge is to ensure that the quality of thinking and debate created by the Inquiry can rise to this ambition.
In the course of the year long research for Cities of the future – global competition, local leadership, senior figures from over 40 cities around the world were interviewed by PricewaterhouseCoopers. From these interviews emerged key trends which cut across the experience of all cities: globalisation, individualism, merging, acceleration, hi-tech, hi-touch, demographics, urbanisation and migration
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.
