Who do you want to serve?

The UK government is scaling back plans to use the private sector to deliver public services, such as benefit payments, tax collection or even the provision of driving licenses. To outsource all public services would be unacceptable, is its recent opinion. The government does want to use more charities or social enterprises. In its old plans, the outsourcing would be limited to joint ventures with not-for-profit groups. It is now inviting the private sector to deliver great public services. Supporters of outsourcing claim that it improves quality and reduces costs of public services. The ones opposing outsourcing fear that workers’ conditions, pay and pensions would be hit.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13273932 Plans to outsource public services 'scaled back'

In my opinion it is a good thing that the government does not control too many services and the outsourcing of services such as civil service administration or providing driving licenses is good thing. One advantage of letting the private sector deliver public services can be the reduction of prices of services. Companies will have to compete for the customer becoming their customer. There are disadvantages to outsourcing as well. One of them is that prices of services can become higher, as there could not be too many companies to do the job. This would create a monopoly position or can result in cartels, which could cause higher prices.