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This interview appears in听the latest edition of the听UCL Policy Lab magazine. To find out more about Policy Lab and get the latest news events, sign up for their newsletter听.听

When the new Chancellor Rachel Reeves gets to her feet on 30 October, we know that there will be the much-touted tough measures around spending and tax. 听

These are fiscally difficult times for the UK government and the new administration is led by those who are determined not to be portrayed as fiscally irresponsible. At the same time, we live at a moment when public services are clearly in need of significant new investment. So how can that circle be squared?听

How might Rachel Reeves 鈥榰nlock鈥� the public service investment needed to turn the UK around, without betraying her own fiscal rules?

One person who knows the answer better than most is Dr Eleanor Woodhouse from the Department for Political Science at UCL. Woodhouse specialises in understanding public and private investment, and the resulting challenges in terms of democratic oversight and responsiveness to citizens. And she has a clear view of the mixed history of recent efforts.

A central pillar of how governments have sought to get investment into public services has been through public-private partnerships (PPP). However, we saw with the now much maligned Public Finance Initiative (PFI) how, when done poorly, these initiatives can leave voters and governments picking up the bill for botched contracts or failed projects.鈥澨�

For Woodhouse these are not simply scholarly questions. Before academia, she spent several busy years as a policy advisor at the European Commission, which gave her an urgent understanding of the twin pressures of policy and politics. And it was because she understood the possibility of policy to change lives, that she decided to bolster her capacity for research. 鈥淚 quickly realised that in order to improve the effectiveness of my policy skills, I would need to get better at evaluating policies鈥�.

听鈥淚t wasn鈥檛 meant to be this way. I鈥檇 originally planned to go back to work in the European Commission, or some other political setting, but I found academia inspiring. I found myself more and more interested in developing my own research agenda, with a focus on exploring the relationship between policy choices and accountability鈥�. The question of accountability comes up time and time again in our conversation. Woodhouse is steeped in the technicalities of delivery, but her work is grounded most of all in the belief that policymaking must first and foremost engage with the concerns and demands of citizens 鈥� and be understandable to them. If good policy is to be sustained, then understanding how citizens can measure and comprehend it is vital.听

These are also central questions for Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. In recent weeks, luminaries like former Cabinet Secretary Gus O鈥橠onnell, have warned about the democratic risks inherent in PFI like schemes that can be opaque and hard to hold to account. Woodhouse echoes O鈥橠onnell鈥檚 caution while also looking to see how we can reform existing forms of investment and public service delivery.听

鈥淚n previous decades, under the new public management paradigm, significant emphasis was placed on value for money and efficiency. And of course this matters hugely. But we also need to understand how government policies are accountable鈥�. Woodhouse points out that during COVID-19, we saw times when policy failed to meet those other needs, which in turn meant they were ineffective in the task of government or citizens.听

This means that for investment schemes such as PPPs, the government needs to be frank and open about where schemes do and don鈥檛 work. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a set of conditions under which research would suggest that public-private partnerships can be successful.鈥� 听

鈥淚 quickly realised that in order to improve the effectiveness of my policy skills, I would need to get better at evaluating policies鈥� 鈥淭hey work best when there is a very clear project with set objectives 鈥� for example, infrastructure like a bridge, tunnel or road.鈥� Woodhouse explains that it gets complex when there are multiple objectives and layers to a contract. A classic example from the 1990s is a hospital or school, where private companies bound the government in 鈥� not only to the building itself but to a myriad of services, from cleaning to maintenance, the effectiveness of which was hard to evaluate from the outside.听

Another area that causes challenges for PPPs is the capacity of the government to keep up with the complexity and expertise of the private sector when it comes to contracting and negotiation. Procurement, long seen as a weakness of British governments, poses real challenges when it comes to more complex forms of PPP.

鈥淧oor governance and design of contracts of this nature can be especially problematic as they can lead to the sometimes-frequent renegotiation of PPPs鈥�. Woodhouse explains. If government is to overcome these challenges it will need to invest in skills and likely bring in external talent at least in the initial stages 鈥� costs which although rational in terms of long-term cost may prove challenging for the public and media to swallow (the eye-watering salaries of knowledgeable private contractors 鈥� with some private sector procurement specialists earning far more than the 听PM 鈥� may prove difficult to justify).听

Yet along with challenges, there are also opportunities to learn from other countries where a collaborative partnership-led approach is being fostered. One such case is Australia, where state governments have used PPPs as opportunities to develop consortia of companies that can deliver on major infrastructure projects. This has the advantage of using state-led projects to support and foster a healthy and sustainable business environment, strengthening the economy for the long term.

Despite the difficulties and the intricacies of public financing right now, I am struck by how Woodhouse never gave up her idealism and belief in the possibility of policy. No matter how rigorous and, yes, abstract the theory, she has held fast to the idea of democratic accountability and human betterment. If Rachel Reeves is to deliver on her mission of a growing economy and improved public services, she鈥檚 going to need the brain power, compassion, and democratic zeal of thinkers like Dr Eleanor Woodhouse.
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