HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Geoffrey Robinson calls for joint venture to sell government services into wider markets [October 1998]

The press release issued by HM Treasury on 26 October 1998.

A workshop aimed at making better use of  government assets by developing joint projects between the public and private sector and selling them into a wider market is being opened today in London by Paymaster General Geoffrey Robinson.

The new initiative allows the private sector to use its entrepreneurial skills in developing joint ventures as part of a move to ensure that the public sector is getting full value for  its many and varied assets.

Speaking at the Treasury’s Wider Markets workshop, Geoffrey Robinson said:

“Wider Markets is a marvellous opportunity and a challenge for us all.  This Government believes that both the public and private sectors have key roles to play in delivering public services and encouraging  investment.  We need public private partnerships to get the best out of the assets  – physical and intellectual – that we have.

“This is one – but only one – of the contributions government itself can make to meet the productivity challenge the Chancellor has set us all.

“This initiative is also about changing the culture in Whitehall.  It’s about giving departments incentives to operate efficiently rather than just telling them to do so. It’s about the Treasury giving guidance and support. A partnership in government as well as between government and the private sector.”

Government has many assets which it believes could be used more intensively – not just to physical assets: land, property and equipment, but also to non-physical assets such as software, databases, know-how and other intellectual property.

Wider markets policy allows Departments to retain the receipts from selling services they have developed from using spare capacity.  This can be achieved by developing commercial services based on public assets in partnership with the private sector.