Jeremy Corbyn has called outsourcing a “racket” that is partly to blame for councils’ current financial predicament.
In his closing speech to the Labour Party conference in Liverpool, the party leader attacked the Conservative government and Tory councilors for pushing Northamptonshire County Council “over the edge”.
He said: “Eight years of destructive austerity and obsessive outsourcing have left other councils teetering on the precipice too, and this government must be held to account for their social vandalism.
“It is Labour councils and only Labour councils that are taking every step to protect people and services and we must thank them for it.
“Privatisation and outsourcing are now a national disaster zone. And Labour is ready to call time on this racket.
Earlier in the week, shadow business secretary Rebecca Bailey-Long said: “And while we’d love to bring as many public contracts back in-house as possible, we cannot reverse overnight the Tories’ devastating cuts to the capacity of the civil service and local government. We must, and we will, rebuild our public services.
In an interview on BBC1 on Sunday Jeremy Corbyn said he understood why councils set illegal budgets.
“I understand it, absolutely understand it. I represent an inner city area in Islington and we were very angry in the 1980s at the way our council expenditure was cut,” he said.
He added that he was “very angry now when I see local authorities trying their best to deliver good quality services” in the face of reduced funds.
