A think tank designing ownership models for a democratic and sustainable economy.
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Welcome to Rip-Off Britain.
A country remade by privatisation.
Our latest project — Who Owns Britain? — explores how a radical experiment transformed our society and shapes your life.
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“The privatisation of life’s essentials, including energy and social care, has created an affordability crisis that is driving up inflation... many of these assets should therefore be publicly owned”
Hettie O'Brien on our work in @guardian
theguardian.com/news/ng-inte…
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Common Wealth retweeted
'Government outsourcing has channelled public money into private profit, at the expense of workers’ rights, democratic accountability and service quality. Bringing services back in-house should be the default across the public sector.'
@Cmmonwealth, @unisontheunion & @RMTunion
“New research conducted by the Common Wealth think tank in partnership with the RMT and Unison and shared exclusively with the New Statesman found that outsourcing companies made £6bn in profit from public services 2025”
Our new report on the case for ending outsourcing 👇
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The cost of outsourcing
The report estimates that public bodies spent £129 billion on outsourced services in 2024/25, equivalent to around 11% of total public spending.
Private companies made £6 billion in operating profits from those services in the same year.
#InsourceNow
ALT Graphic with white text on a black background that reads "Over £6 billion in profit taken from public services by outsourcing companies last year."
“New research conducted by the Common Wealth think tank in partnership with the RMT and Unison and shared exclusively with the New Statesman found that outsourcing companies made £6bn in profit from public services 2025”
Our new report on the case for ending outsourcing 👇
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Evidence of the promised benefits, competition, cost and quality, are lacking.
In 2014, a report from the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee concluded that, “[s]o far, the contracting out of services has led to the evolution of privately-owned public monopolies”
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Outsourced workers tend to have lower wages and more insecure working arrangements than those directly employed.
RMT research on outsourcing in rail has also shown how much it has driven racial and skill-level segregations in the workforce of train operating companies.
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Labour has already committed to ending the era of “outsourcing by default”. This commitment must be met with action.
Our new report outlines the steps needed to make this vital shift.
Read the full report here: common-wealth.org/publicatio…
Follow the campaign: @InsourceNowGB
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We were told outsourcing would transform our public services.
But the reality has been far from the pitch.
Our new report, in collaboration with @unisontheunion and @RMTunion , outlines why insourcing is needed across the public sector.
common-wealth.org/publicatio…
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Today, private companies are involved in everything from collecting bins on behalf of local authorities and early-years childcare to providing school meals and running IT systems for the NHS.
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Outsourcing gained momentum in the 1980s as private companies were increasingly contracted to deliver in the public sector.
Typically, this began with work not in direct interaction with service users such as IT, building care and cleaning.
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“New research conducted by the Common Wealth think tank in partnership with the RMT and Unison and shared exclusively with the New Statesman found that outsourcing companies made £6bn in profit from public services 2025”
Our new report on the case for ending outsourcing 👇
Scoop: Outsourced workers on publicly owned TransPennine Express are to strike during Labour Party Conference in a move designed by the RMT Union to pressure Andy Burnham to fulfil the government’s promise to “end the era of outsourcing by default”.
Eddie Dempsey, the general secretary of the RMT said the union hopes the strike will encourage the government to “start discussing a plan for delivery and identifying quick wins”.
New research by the @Cmmonwealth think tank and shared with the New Statesman found that outsourcing companies made £6bn in profit from public services in 2025. They estimate that this money, if redirected, could pay for 300,000 additional adult social care workers.
Full story @newstatesman below -
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Read the full report here: common-wealth.org/publicatio…
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“But the critical question is, will public oversight without ownership provide meaningful control over privatised companies or not?"
@DantonsHead in the @guardian on the limits of public control without ownership.
theguardian.com/business/202…
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"Additional debt...would be offset by a national asset —one that can lower bills, enhance competitiveness, and direct influence over energy strategy"
The ex-CEO of BP makes the case for nationalising transmission, gas peakers and legacy RO assets.
observer.co.uk/news/business…
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We have made a similar argument in our recent work on the grid, generation, and market design. See:
common-wealth.org/publicatio…
common-wealth.org/publicatio…
common-wealth.org/publicatio…
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Common Wealth retweeted
🚨 Panel Event
Join @KojoKoram and @SSteinLubrano to discuss who wins and who loses as Britain's relationships with drugs is remade and, as cannabis and psychedelics move towards commercialisation, who really owns the emerging drug economy.
luma.com/c672tszx
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“Arconic, whose flammable cladding encased the tower, has done more to compensate its shareholders than the survivors and the bereaved”.
Our report on corporate accountability after Grenfell — Unpunished and Undeterred — covered in @prospect_uk
prospectmagazine.co.uk/polit…
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