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June 2009 | Expectations & aspirations: Public attitudes towards social care
The future of social care has long been a topic of policy debate in the UK. Current social care arrangements are widely considered to be financially unsustainable, incoherent and unfair. However, despite the strong consensus for the need for change, policy on social care has stagnated.
In advance of the UK Government Green Paper on social care, we commissioned this independent survey to explore public levels of awareness and understanding of social care provision. This research is part of our wider work with the Institute of Public Policy Research (ippr) about the future of social care. |  |
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May 2009 | Finance at the crossroads: The changing role of finance in government and the public sector
Finance functions in government and the public sector face one common and pervasive challenge – balancing competing demands of finance efficiency, compliance and control, and insight. In any organisation, finance must juggle with running efficiently, demonstrating value for money while establishing and maintaining effective controls to manage risk, and delivering real insight to the business.
Finance at the crossroads: The changing role of finance in government and the public sector is part of a wider global research project on the future of finance in the public sector and examines the trends, issues and changing environment faced by finance directors across the UK public sector. The findings demonstrate that finance in the sector is at a crossroads and faces significant challenges. The current economic climate means that now more than ever finance must speak up – and be listened to. However, a place at the top table will only be earned when finance is seen not simply as a scorekeeper but as a business partner, adding value across government and the public sector. |  |
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May 2009 | New partnerships for public services: Can collaboration between social and private enterprise deliver?
The third sector makes a significant contribution to society, employing 650,000 people, and contributing nearly £9 billion a year to the UK economy with social enterprises alone. The sector has evolved at a rapid rate, assisted over the last decade by a determined push from Whitehall to create a more mixed economy for public service delivery.
We commissioned this independent survey as part of our work on the smarter state in order to understand how to maximise the positive impact of the third sector on public service delivery and to examine the views towards partnerships between the sectors as one route to delivery of this agenda.
The research findings demonstrate that both sectors broadly support partnerships, even though the third sector is consistently more ambivalent. Both sectors say there is a need to focus on how to make the partnerships themselves work most effectively - that the key to collaborative working is to invest time and energy in building mutual understanding, developing shared goals and effective ways of working together. At the heart of the debate is how social and private enterprise can best work together to deliver better public sector social outcomes. |  |
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April 2009 | Freeing the front line: Where next for corporate shared services in the public sector?
Much has been done in recent years to promote and support shared services initiatives in the UK. However, because of the sheer breadth of the public sector, progress to date has been achieved in spite of, rather than because of, an overarching vision. Much work remains to be done to yield the benefits that could be achieved if a more joined-up approach to shared services were adopted.
Freeing the front Line: Where next for corporate shared services in the public sector challenges government on its vision and sets out a roadmap for shared services. We also explore recent developments in the public sector’s implementation of the shared services strategy in the UK and discuss potential lessons from the commercial sector. |  |
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Mar 2009 | A hybrid carbon tax and trading scheme
A dramatic increase in low carbon investment is needed to avoid irreversible climate change – of the order of US$500 billion per year according to some estimates - and the UN expects that over 85% of this will come from the private sector. But the uncertainty and recent low prices seen in the carbon market are major barriers to gearing up investment. This paper by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP argues that a modified trading scheme would bring some of the advantages of price certainty provided by a carbon tax while also capturing both the potential political attractions of carbon trading schemes and the virtues of allowing some price flexibility in response to evolving economic and technological conditions. |  |
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Mar 2009 | Redefining success: Government and the global CEO
Our new annual study, Redefining success: Government and the global CEO, compares and contrasts the viewpoints of CEOs and top-level government officials on the global financial crisis and the implications for improved business-to-government collaboration and smarter regulation. This report builds upon PricewaterhouseCoopers prestigious annual Global CEO survey, launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos, and includes views from an international sample of public sector leaders as well as those from business CEOs. |  |
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Mar 2009 | Dealing with debt: Reforming public services and narrowing the fiscal gap
Exceptional times require exceptional responses. The UK’s public finances are under severe strain due to the effects of the global financial crisis and the deepening UK recession. Higher public borrowing is inevitable in the short term, but government has a responsibility to plan now to put the public finances back on a sustainable basis in the medium term.
This new report addresses the strain on UK public finances due to the global financial crisis and the current recession, and makes recommendations for closing an estimated £43 billion fiscal gap in 2013/14. |  |
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Feb 2009
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Social Private Partnerships - Innovation in public service delivery
The last decade has seen a determined push by Whitehall to create a more mixed economy for public service delivery. The policy objective, has been to transform the UK's £79bn public service market by widening choice, lowering cost and radically improving service delivery. The third sector has been an important part in this reform process, and is portrayed by politicians from all parties as an important element in the mixed provision of services. However, the reality of growing the third sector has not always matched the rhetoric.
This publication examines the critical challenges being faced in accessing new market opportunities for social enterprises. Specifically, we explore how partnerships and alliances between the third and private sectors may be necessary to achieve the critical mass in capacity and capability in order to address larger and more complex service requirements.
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Feb 2009 | Assertive citizens: New relationships in the public services Social Market Foundation report
Today’s citizens are more assertive of their rights and less deferential to traditional forms of authority than ever before. Improved access to information, increasing prosperity and greater social freedoms have encouraged fundamental changes to the ways in which we engage with Government and this has implications for public policy and the role of public service professionals. In particular, rising expectations have created profound challenges for public services, principally in health and education. A Social Market Foundation report produced in partnership with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP examines how the rise in “assertive individualism” is affecting public policy in the UK and draws conclusions on how government can enable reform in a way which empowers users in their dealings with public services. | |
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Jan 2009
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A review of lending appetite for public private partnership financings
In the UK, there has been a lot of speculation about the direction of project finance lending for PPP transactions in light of the current banking turmoil. Many have concluded that long term loans are no longer feasible in light of the capital and liquidity constraints the banks face. But is this true?
PwC carried out a review of over 20 UK banks with one-on-one interviews at the beginning of 2009 to find out their lending appetite for PPP transactions and their structural preferences. The responses were striking not only in their diversity, but in the differences in underlying motivations that led banks to their respective positions.
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Nov 2008
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Managing in a downturn - Delivering public sector change in a volatile market
Over the past months the impact of the credit crunch and the global economic slowdown on private companies and individuals has dominated the headlines. The UK economy now appears to have moved into recession, with falling output across most major sectors of the economy and rising unemployment. The budget deficit has risen sharply in the first half of 2008/9 and with inflation now expected to fall quickly next year, interest rates are being slashed to try to stimulate bank lending whilst fiscal policy is being considerably loosened.
A key question arising for both central and local government organisations is: what impact the downturn will have on the public sector and the delivery of public services?
This publication examines the critical challenges being faced by local government organisations, and explores how lessons from the private sector might be used to deliver change in the public sector. We also discuss the fundamental priorities that the public sector should focus on during the downturn and the efficiencies that the UK Government plans to achieve through the Operational Efficiency Programme.
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Nov 2008
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Asset or liability? - Achieving operational efficiency for the public sector property portfolio
Most parts of the public sector occupy significant amounts of property. Yet a majority of public sector organisations are battling with portfolios that are too large, do not meet their current needs, are unlikely to meet their future ones, are unsustainable and are costly to run.
Property features prominently in two of the sections of the UK Treasury's Operating Efficiency Programme (OEP) for this very reason. The over-riding challenge for the public sector is how best to realise value from surplus assets whilst reducing cost and continuing to improve services.
This opinion piece examines the case for collaboration to achieve the efficiencies required within and across the public sector estate. In particular, it explores how planning across geographical regions can enable the “joined up delivery” that contributes to efficiency.
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Nov 2008
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No going back - Complex procurement beyond PFI
With the implementation of IFRS, PFI is being compared more carefully to other procurement strategies. PFI’s rigorous risk identification and more certain outcomes mean it should still play a role. For unvarying, predictable projects, where risk can be taken by contractors, it will remain a key procurement approach.
For more challenging and complex procurements, there is now a range of alternative strategies. For projects not suitable for PFI, what happens now?
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Nov 2008
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Infrastructure finance: Surviving 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. |
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Nov 2008 | Paying taxes 2009: The global picture
This unique joint study by PwC's Tax practice and the World Bank compares tax regimes in 181 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. | |
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Sept 2008
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Funding affordable housing – New options for housing associations?
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. |
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July 2008 | Review of carbon markets: Creating a successful international framework
As part of Tony Blair and The Climate Group’s Breaking the Climate Deadlock initiative, PricewaterhouseCoopers was commissioned to review the state of the carbon markets. Our review recommends what it will take to create a successful international framework. Part of an ongoing programme of collaboration with opinion leaders to inform climate change policy, it argues that the sum of the parts of the carbon markets will not deliver the real cuts in emissions that are required. It sets out a vision for a more open, global carbon market and makes recommendations on issues requiring decision prior to UN negotiations in Copenhagen 2009 | |
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July 2008 | The world in 2050: Can rapid global growth be reconciled with moving to a low carbon economy?
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. | |
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June 2008 | Making the most of collaboration: An international survey of public service co-design
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. | |
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June 2008 | Just care? A fresh approach to adult services
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. | |
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May 2008 | Building new Europe’s infrastructure: Public private partnerships in Central and Eastern Europe
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. | |
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Mar 2008 | Regulate & collaborate: Government & global CEO
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. | |
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Mar 2008 | Confronting corruption: The business case for an effective anti-corruption programme
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. | |
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Mar 2008 | The value of PFI: Hanging in the balance (sheet)?
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? | |
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Feb 2008 | Financial devolution for local growth
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. | |
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Nov 2007 | The road ahead for public service delivery: Delivering on the customer promise
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. | |
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Nov 2007 | Paying taxes 2008: The global picture
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. | |
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Sept 2007 | Public services at the crossroads 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. | |
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Sept 2007 | It’s all about you: Citizen-centred welfare 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. | |
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Sept 2007 | City solutions: Financing local growth towards a supplementary business rate? 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.
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Sept 2007 | Consumer insight in public services 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. | |
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Aug 2007 | Information security awareness initiatives: Current practice and the measurement of success
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. | |
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July 2007 | Making placements abroad: An opportunity for all
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 | |
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July 2007 | Capital ideas: Incentives for councils to build major infrastructure projects 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.
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Apr 2007 | Investing in HOPE: Lessons from the USA on mixed communities
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. | |
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Mar 2007 | Cities of opportunity: Business-readiness indicators for the 21st century
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. | |
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