by René Lavanchy
PUBLIC sector union Unison have warned that an arms company’s bid to run emergency services vehicles, which could see it buying up ambulances, fire engines and police cars across the country, will “all go wrong”.
VT Group, the defence services and shipbuilding group formerly called Vosper Thornycroft, confirmed this week it is in discussion with local authorities to enter into contracts to run their vehicle fleets along the lines of the Private Finance Initiative.
The company says it can help authorities cut their budgets in anticipation of Government public spending cuts, particularly if authorities sell off their fleets and lease them back. It also claimed that fleet numbers could be reduced through greater efficiency.
But Unison general secretary Dave Prentis, whose union represents NHS ambulance staff, said such contracts were too inflexible and doomed the taxpayer to picking up the bill.
A VT spokesperson said: “Where we see potential in the future, particularly with constraints on budgets, is to make assets of central and local government work more effectively. Certainly there are signs that they need to improve efficiency.”
“The idea is you can reduce the number of assets because you’re maintaining them more efficiently. If you require extra hours then maybe that can be done by managing the fleet more effectively or by procuring more assets.
VT already has a 10-year contract to maintain the Metropolitan Police’s entire fleet of 3,600 vehicles with 24-hour repairs and maintenance. The company also owns three Royal Navy patrol vessels and the Ministry of Defence’s fleet of construction and earth moving vehicles.
The spokesperson said: “The contracts work in different ways. They can vary from us owning the asset and making it available to the customer for a certain number of days a year. The Met police one works in a different way, where we’re the maintainers of the fleet. We’re paid for making sure that the asset’s in the right place at the right time.”
VT is contracted to make its vehicles available for a fixed number of days or make a percentage available at any one time. If the contractor wants greater access to their vehicles, they have to pay a premium. “If there’s an additional usage then clearly that will be reflected in the contract.”
Responding, Dave Prentis said: “This is yet another experiment into privatisation of vital public services. When will local authorities and health trusts learn the lessons of market failure and stop tying themselves into costly, inflexible contracts?
“When it all goes wrong, and there are many examples of this happening, it is the taxpayer and people who depend on services that are left holding the bill. What we need are properly funded public services, run in the interests of patients and people, not profit.”
VT said it was “just in the initial stages” and declined to say which emergency services authorities were involved. None of the fire and ambulance services contacted by Tribune returned requests for comment.
