Another Broken Promise?

In those distant days when Fiaz saw her future with the vanguards of the Corbynite Left, Fiaz published a number of pledges. A pledge to end all further privatisation and outsourcing was prominent amongst them.

Readers will be surprised to learn therefore that there appears to have been some back-door privatisation via Local Space, the temporary accommodation company set up by LBN.

Local Space have announced that they are taking on responsibility for the repairs and maintenance of an additional 700 properties. What they don’t say is that the repairs and maintenance will be done by a private contractor. 

It appears that the council have outsourced responsibility for street horticulture, specifically tree pruning/ cutting, to a private contractor. This comes after they proudly announced that this and other work had been brought "back in house”.

Here is the mayor publicising the return of services from SERCO to the public sector. Mayor Fiaz was quoted on the Newham website as follows.  “When I was elected in 2018 I said that I wanted to do things differently and end the privatisation and outsourcing of council services. I’m convinced that this decision to bring our cleansing services back under full council control, will allow decisions to be made more simply and flexibly at a local level for the benefit of our residents.“As well as saving public money, it will bring better control, allow us to develop our workers and deliver a better service. Bringing services in house is central to the Community Wealth Building that informs our Council’s values - local services run by, and for, local people.”

We reported earlier about how the much vaunted increase in enforcement officers turned out to be a money making scheme using the private sector.

It seems that the mayor’s enthusiasm for her previous pledges and the public sector as a provider is waning, somewhat. We shouldn’t be too hard. Sticking by her promises for two years is almost admirable.