OPINION The pandemic is putting a strain on the public sector and forcing strategic decisions about facility provision
photo: shutterstock/Halfpoint
Everyone’s talking about
Insourcing With local authority facility management companies and councils under financial pressure due to the pandemic and issues emerging around health inequalities, will we see a trend towards councils insourcing the management of facilities? Kath Hudson rounds up views
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or more than 30 years, outsourcing has worked well for local authorities and their leisure operating partners, but COVID-19 has provided a shake-up and made some councils question their priorities, while some operators are turning to
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Issue 7 2021 ©Cybertrek 2021
councils for additional funds, creating a shake-up in parts of the contracting world. With now being an unfavourable time to tender, with only a few contractors interested in launching into new partnerships, a desire to build back fairer to level out the inequalities exposed by the
pandemic and with some council/ contractor relationships under strain, a number of councils are considering bringing services back in-house or setting up Local Authority Trading Companies to take over the short- to mediumterm management of facilities. We ask our experts for their comments.