Public sector rejig to provide acquisition opportunities?

Privatisation of public services will always be contentious; but while some will spend their time discussing politics, others are keeping a hawk-like eye on the Government's disposal strategy in order to spot any business opportunities that might crop up in the disposal process.

Over the past few months the Cabinet Office has been revealing plans to sell off a number of departments in an effort to cut costs and raise funds. The result will be a drastically slimmed-down Civil Service, with as many as 75,000 public sector employees transferred into the private sector.

Among the departments mooted for sale are the Government's Behavioural Insights Team – commonly dubbed the 'nudge unit' – and the Royal Mail postal service. The Government stake in uranium enrichment firm Urenco has also been put on the market, alongside millions of pounds worth of other state assets that are due to be sold as part of the Coalition's efforts to cut costs.

But the disposal plan isn't just going to open up direct opportunities to buy businesses and assets. It will should also stimulate a change in the country's business attitude, which in turn could well boost economic growth. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude explained: “The state is an inherently monopolistic entity and a state monopoly can be the enemy of enterprise.

“Within the public sector there is a legion of entrepreneurs, fired with the public service ethos but deeply frustrated with the constraints imposed by the monolith within which they are imprisoned. Liberating them as leaders of a new cohort of public-service mutuals will create a whole new enterprise sector in our economy.”

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Acquisition Strategy

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