Published: June 15th 2010 - at 9:20 am

Companies boast insider info on Budget


by Sunny Hundal    

Private companies are boasting that they have inside knowledge of what is going to be in the Government’s emergency budget on 22 June, which, if true, shows exactly whose side the coalition government is on, said the Unions union last night.

Mark Fox, Chief Executive of the Business Services Association (BSA), has e-mailed councils telling them that the Fair Deal provision, covering pension entitlements, will be abolished in the emergency budget.

BSA brings together private companies bidding for contracts in local government. Fox further claims to have had private discussions with ministers about the Emergency Budget.

Unions say that ditching crucial pension protection for low paid public sector workers, who are transferred to private companies, would not save the State a penny. It would, however, make the contracts more lucrative for private companies.

It’s general secretary, Dave Prentis, said:

It’s totally disgraceful and unconstitutional that multi-national companies should be given details of what is to be in the emergency budget. This is a clear indication that we are not, as the Cameron mantra goes, all in this together.

The fact that its abolition won’t save the country a single penny, shows that the intention is to make these contracts more lucrative for private companies. There would be no level playing field with an in-house bid, because contractors could undercut, at the expense of the workforce.

From a press release


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About the author
Sunny Hundal is editor of LC. Also: on Twitter, at Pickled Politics and Guardian CIF.
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Reader comments


1. Roger Mexico

Surely the scrapping of the Fair Deal will actually cost the Country money. If you effectively reduce additional pensions for the low paid workers who become low paid pensioners, all you do is eventually increase the amount you pay out in pensioner credits etc.

In addition if in-work benefits are also covered by these changes to Fair Deal packages, this would immediately move some of the cost from the employer to the State.

Presumably someone who knows the interaction between the current Fair Deal systems and benefits should be able to work out the additional and future costs this would cause to the Government.

This may just be the BSA wishful thinking of course, but if they’re right there’s two political points here. Firstly if Osborne is leaking like a sieve on this, what is he telling all his City mates?

Secondly, if the head of the BSA feels confident enough to send out a general letter to Councils on this, the attitude of most local government leadership must be more concerned with the profits of their contractors than the conditions of their staff. Makes you wonder why


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  1. yorkierosie

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  2. Ross Haffenden

    RT @libcon: Companies boast insider info on Emergency Budget http://bit.ly/c82dii

  3. Liberal Conspiracy

    Companies boast insider info on Emergency Budget http://bit.ly/c82dii

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    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Liberal Conspiracy and Ross Haffenden, yorkierosie. yorkierosie said: RT @libcon: Companies boast insider info on Emergency Budget http://bit.ly/c82dii [...]





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