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Carillion

(479 Posts)
maryeliza54 Mon 15-Jan-18 07:55:13

So it’s happened - what an unholy mess. Why on earth were they allowed to grow so big and to diversify so much? How many companies went to the wall because they were priced out by Carillion who must have put in completely unrealistic tenders to win contracts? All those worried employees and what about the pension fund? The magic money tree will be in full working order no doubt. W hat about HS2 - they got the contract when they were already in trouble. The government has made some truly incredible decisions knowing this - is there sheer incompetence here or something more sinister?

Ilovecheese Mon 15-Jan-18 17:49:53

maryeliza54
Snap!

Jalima1108 Mon 15-Jan-18 17:47:19

They obviously stretched themselves too far and too thinly.

maryeliza54 Mon 15-Jan-18 17:44:15

I rather think a Carillion saw the public sector as a bottomless pit of money to be fair

Ilovecheese Mon 15-Jan-18 17:44:06

Seems to me it was Carillion that saw the public sector as a bottomless pit of money.

Jalima1108 Mon 15-Jan-18 17:43:01

I think it comes back to the fact that if you want good services you are going to have to be prepared to pay for them.
"You get what you pay for" as DM used to say.

I watched a programme on Crossrail not that long ago and remember being very impressed.
hmm

From Crossrail to school dinners - they have been providing a very wide range of services across the country.

durhamjen Mon 15-Jan-18 17:09:04

What's this got to do with Corbyn?

Most people in work, whether private or public, are tax payers, unless they are the bosses who pay themselves through tax havens.

durhamjen Mon 15-Jan-18 17:06:44

There don't seem to be many Tory MPs listening to Lidington in the Commons.

gillybob Mon 15-Jan-18 17:05:43

Corbyn just sees the public sector as a bloomin’ bottomless pit of money ( called tax payers).

durhamjen Mon 15-Jan-18 17:03:06

twitter.com/MartinShovel/status/951940453057941505/photo/1

gillybob Mon 15-Jan-18 16:58:03

I don’t know an exact figure but it will be quite a few I would imagine whitewave much the same as if Nissan went down they would take hundreds of North East SME’s with them . Very sad all round .

whitewave Mon 15-Jan-18 16:51:16

I wonder how many firms are subcontracted to them?

MaizieD Mon 15-Jan-18 16:45:45

It's 20,000 UK employees but I've seen that they employ 43,000 people over all in the UK and overseas.

whitewave Mon 15-Jan-18 16:41:48

Of course as well as the 20000 employees there are all the other firms Carillion will take with them.

durhamjen Mon 15-Jan-18 16:35:37

"Lidington says that the private sector plays an important role delivering UK public services - something that parties on both sides of the House of Commons have accepted."

I don't think Labour accept it.

durhamjen Mon 15-Jan-18 16:33:48

Amelia Gentleman in the Guardian over a year ago.

"As soon as you enter Wandsworth prison, you notice that dozens of windows on this side of the four-storey A-wing have been smashed. This level of vandalism inside a prison is a bit startling, but it’s such a common problem that prison officers pay little attention to the scale of the damage until asked about it. Each cell window has three narrow transparent panels and most cells have at least one broken pane; prisoners have stuffed duvets and towels into the cavities, or patched them up with flattened milk cartons to keep out the January cold. The prison’s head of security believes that some prisoners are smashing holes in their windows in order to receive deliveries of drugs flown in by drones.

The drone that crashed in December was quite large and carried a camera to help its owner guide it to its destination. The flight was made at a time when the prison is most vulnerable, during the night hours when there are only seven prison officers on duty, responsible for the 1,600 prisoners locked in their cells. Since last February, the deliveries have become a fairly routine occurrence. Several other crashed drones have been discovered on the roof of the prison, similarly loaded with mobile phones and drugs."

She was told that fixing the windows was the job of Carillion.

MaizieD Mon 15-Jan-18 16:31:38

It was nothing but a Ponzi scheme...

Funnily enough, MOnica, that thought had crossed my mind this morning..

durhamjen Mon 15-Jan-18 16:24:30

Caroline Lucas today.

"Carillion's payouts to shareholders have increased in each of the 16 years since formation of company, boosted by Govt obsession with PFI. Yet today the company collapses, risking 1000s of jobs & threatening people's pensions. That's the neoliberal story, right there."

David Lidington has said that Jobcentreplus has a rapid results service.
Really?

whitewave Mon 15-Jan-18 16:14:34

It couldn’t have come at a worse time for the NHS

whitewave Mon 15-Jan-18 16:12:01

The hedge funds have had a very good day

durhamjen Mon 15-Jan-18 16:01:02

Talking about banks, Philip Green is supposed to be chairman of Williams and Glyn Bank if it gets divested from RBS.

GracesGranMK2 Mon 15-Jan-18 15:46:35

I don't think so. I would agree with foolish. Its just too simplistic. I think it comes back to the fact that if you want good services you are going to have to be prepared to pay for them.

Jalima1108 Mon 15-Jan-18 15:11:56

I'm not sure - Local Government used to go for the lowest bidder (foolish imo) but that was many years ago. Is there anything in the rules and regulations that says that must be the case?

GracesGranMK2 Mon 15-Jan-18 15:10:08

I think your summary is a good one Jalima. It does just leave me with that sickening feeling though, that all the deconstruction of groups of talent we once had has left us very open to much more going wrong - so what next?

GillT57 Mon 15-Jan-18 15:09:06

Several years ago I worked for a very major player in the petrochemical industry. At the start of a new multi million project, interested parties would be invited to bid for the myriad different contracts. The bid evaluations were undertaken with great security and each potential subcontractor was evaluated on grounds of financial strength, other contractual commitments, capital balances, percentage of turnover etc. On this basis, many were rejected, even if they were notionally the cheapest. This was before the crash, before all the RBS, Northern Rock scandals. Why was Carillion exempt from this process? Or are the people evaluating these bids simply looking at the bottom line?

Jalima1108 Mon 15-Jan-18 15:08:18

see the contracts