Sam Freedman’s new book Failed State: Why Britain Doesn’t Work and How We Fix It offers a sobering diagnosis of Britain’s broken governance. His central claim: decades of over-centralisation and reckless outsourcing have hollowed out the state, leaving public services expensive, inefficient, and unaccountable.
The centralisation problem – Successive governments stripped local councils of powers and funding, making communities dependent on Whitehall.
The outsourcing trap – From the 1980s onward, core services once provided in-house were forced into the market. Bin collection, cleaning, and—most disastrously—children’s homes were handed to private contractors. Today, three-quarters of residential care is run by private equity firms, charging councils up to £6,000 per child per week while making double-digit profits. Vulnerable children are often displaced hundreds of miles from family networks, with damaging consequences.
When outsourcing fails – Freedman identifies three tests for outsourcing: (1) real competition, (2) measurable outcomes, and (3) risk shifted to the provider. Where these conditions are absent—as in children’s care, probation, or security—outsourcing is doomed. Yet the same few conglomerates keep winning contracts, despite repeated scandals involving Serco, G4S, Atos and others.
The democratic deficit – Freedman shows how Parliament struggles to hold the executive to account, while governments chase headlines in the 24-hour news cycle instead of long-term strategy. The result is a state run by media reaction, not coherent planning.
A fractured state – Britain’s institutions, weakened by privatisation and short-termism, have made it easier for poor leaders to cause lasting damage. Freedman offers no easy fixes, but his insider account is a sharp warning: without structural reform, the UK will remain locked in a cycle of dependency on private profiteers and weak accountability.
Sam Freedman’s new book Failed State: Why Britain Doesn’t Work and How We Fix It offers a sobering diagnosis of Britain’s broken governance. His central claim: decades of over-centralisation and reckless outsourcing have hollowed out the state, leaving public services expensive, inefficient, and unaccountable.
The centralisation problem – Successive governments stripped local councils of powers and funding, making communities dependent on Whitehall.
The outsourcing trap – From the 1980s onward, core services once provided in-house were forced into the market. Bin collection, cleaning, and—most disastrously—children’s homes were handed to private contractors. Today, three-quarters of residential care is run by private equity firms, charging councils up to £6,000 per child per week while making double-digit profits. Vulnerable children are often displaced hundreds of miles from family networks, with damaging consequences.
When outsourcing fails – Freedman identifies three tests for outsourcing: (1) real competition, (2) measurable outcomes, and (3) risk shifted to the provider. Where these conditions are absent—as in children’s care, probation, or security—outsourcing is doomed. Yet the same few conglomerates keep winning contracts, despite repeated scandals involving Serco, G4S, Atos and others.
The democratic deficit – Freedman shows how Parliament struggles to hold the executive to account, while governments chase headlines in the 24-hour news cycle instead of long-term strategy. The result is a state run by media reaction, not coherent planning.
A fractured state – Britain’s institutions, weakened by privatisation and short-termism, have made it easier for poor leaders to cause lasting damage. Freedman offers no easy fixes, but his insider account is a sharp warning: without structural reform, the UK will remain locked in a cycle of dependency on private profiteers and weak accountability.
Summary: How Britain Privatised Itself into Failure
The article reviews Sam Freedman’s book Failed State: Why Britain Doesn’t Work and How We Fix It, which argues that Britain’s over-centralised governance and excessive outsourcing of public services have left the state hollowed out and dysfunctional.
Key Points:
- Over-centralisation: Power has become concentrated in the Prime Minister’s office and Treasury, eroding local government’s role and funding.
- Outsourcing & privatisation: Since the 1980s, utilities and services once delivered in-house by councils (bin collections, cleaning, children’s homes) have been handed to private contractors. This has created dependency on private firms, often with poor outcomes.
- Children’s homes crisis: Three-quarters of residential care places are now run by profit-driven private equity firms. Costs have soared (up to £6,000 per week per child), while children are displaced far from families, increasing vulnerability. Providers profit heavily while councils bear ultimate responsibility.
- When outsourcing works: Freedman notes outsourcing only succeeds if (1) real competition exists, (2) outcomes can be measured, and (3) risk transfers to the provider. Many public services (like child care, probation, security) fail these tests, leading to systemic problems.
- Catalogue of failures: From G4S’s Olympic security fiasco to Atos’s mishandling of disability assessments and Grayling’s disastrous probation privatisation, outsourcing has often damaged services. Despite repeated failures, government keeps awarding contracts to the same firms—creating an oligopoly without accountability.
- Democratic weakness: Parliament is too dominated by the executive to hold government accountable, while judicial review is one of the few checks on power. The civil service remains outdated and demoralised.
- Politics trapped in the media cycle: Ministers chase headlines and social media moments rather than long-term strategy, further weakening governance.
- Conclusion: Britain faces a “crisis of governance” where fragile institutions, privatised services, and short-term politics allow poor leaders to do lasting damage. While Freedman offers some hope, he avoids shallow optimism.
Verdict: The book is praised as an “excellent” insider account, blending evidence, interviews, and sharp analysis to expose how Britain outsourced its way into dysfunction and how structural reform is essential.
If we look at Sam Freedman’s diagnosis of Britain’s hollowed-out state through an Aquarian lens—the values of transparency, decentralisation, empowerment, and collaboration—the remedies become clearer.
Aquarian Strategies to Fix Britain’s Outsourcing Failure
- Decentralise Power Back to Communities
- Reverse over-centralisation by giving councils financial autonomy and real decision-making power.
- Replace “command from Whitehall” with localised solutions rooted in the needs of communities.
- Create citizen assemblies to guide service priorities and spending.
- Shift from Profit Extraction to Stewardship
- End profiteering in essential services like children’s care, prisons, and health support.
- Establish community-owned cooperatives or non-profit trusts to deliver services, ensuring surpluses are reinvested locally.
- Cap returns in critical social care sectors to prevent exploitation.
- Rebuild In-House Capacity
- Where outsourcing fails the three tests (competition, measurability, risk transfer), restore state provision.
- Train and empower a new public service workforce built on vocation, care, and human capital development rather than cost-cutting.
- Create Structural Trust through Transparency
- Open-source all government contracts, tenders, and performance data for public scrutiny.
- Introduce citizen oversight boards to monitor major service providers.
- Make lobbying transparent—ending the dominance of private conglomerates with hidden influence.
- Embrace Human Capital First
- Invest in people over profit: training, education, mental health, and social wellbeing as the real infrastructure of the nation.
- Recognise that outcomes like children’s development, rehabilitation, and community safety cannot be reduced to contracts alone—they require relational investment.
- Long-Term Planning over Short-Term Headlines
- Replace the 24-hour news cycle mentality with citizen charters for 10–20 year service strategies.
- Anchor policies in sustainability and intergenerational equity.
- Hybrid Public–Social Innovation
- Instead of a binary choice between the state and private equity, grow social enterprises, cooperatives, and mutuals.
- Support experimentation with new delivery models that combine innovation with accountability.
Aquarian Principle in Action
Where the old system outsourced for profit, the Aquarian system would in-source for purpose.
Where the old system centralised to control, the Aquarian system would decentralise to empower.
Where the old system measured success by cost savings, the Aquarian system would measure success by human flourishing.
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