Strengthening Bonds Between Public and Private Groups

Christopher Philippou

Christopher Philippou, Chief Operating Officer at specialist accommodation provider, Stef & Philips, discusses how the public and private sectors can work together to help solve societal problems in the UK.

In today’s world, it’s as important as ever for organisations within the public and private sectors to work together. As societal problems get more complicated, pooling resources and individual strengths can enable us to find new ideas to fix the issues we face collectively.

When public and private groups cooperate effectively, they can produce great outcomes and become more than just the sum of their parts. Combining financial resources with experience, skills and knowledge is a valuable tactic in making sure that our public services are operating in this way.

In September, Birmingham City Council, the largest local authority in Europe, declared itself in effect bankrupt, whilst Woking Council has laid out a huge package of cuts to local services including care, arts, sports and toilets in an effort to plug its £1.2 billion deficit.

Whilst the public sector’s primary responsibility is the welfare of people, private players typically have more financial resources and freedom to innovate and create solutions. When they work in tandem, solutions to common problems are easier to find. And with the changes we’ve seen recently in local authority budgets, partnerships between public and private organisations could be something we see more of in the future.

At Stef & Philips, we’ve seen first-hand how working together can help in areas like social housing, where private investment has grown significantly in the last five years. A report from Big Society Capital shows that social and affordable housing funds now account for 55% of the UK’s £9.4bn social impact investment market, whilst new research from JLL suggests that even more investor strategies targeting affordable housing will see the sector account for 23% of private institution-owned rental housing in the next few years.

But this isn’t just about housing. The same ideas of public-private partnership and collaboration can apply to healthcare, education and other areas of society to make those services better.

More Investment Needed

A key factor behind these partnerships is investment. At a time of reduced government funding, private investors can provide much-needed additional capital and resources. With these shared resources, public organisations and private companies can work together on largescale projects, such as improving healthcare and fixing issues with housing.

These investments can generate positive returns for both investment partners and society.  A recent study revealed that improving the UK’s worst quality housing could generate over £135bn in societal benefits through improved well-being. Underscoring that partnerships and investment focused on holistic solutions are crucial.

Building strong connections is the first step. Government departments, the NHS, groups that help others, investors, and private companies can’t solve these problems alone. Having a place to talk and work together, thinking about the people who need help, is the first step to making things better.

Only recently the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities handed back £1.9 billion of funding after struggling to find projects to spend it on – could closer collaboration with the private sector have helped to put the funds to work?

Everyone has something useful to share—like data, good ideas, thoughts from the people who use the services, or technical knowledge. By combining these strengths, we can make public services work better.

Bringing New Ideas to Build a New Society

The benefits of collective thinking and shared resources are never more important than in social housing. Where private investors have invested in this sector, we’ve seen partnerships exploring innovative ways of building new homes and restoring existing housing stock, including using different materials.

Investment in energy efficiency measures like solar panels, heat pumps and insulation systems not only help tenants save money on their energy bills but also create healthy homes and increase the value of existing housing. It costs a lot—around £250 billion—to fix the lack of affordable housing, and the government can’t do it all on their own. And that means working together is vital to make a difference.

By improving the housing sector, this form of partnering in turn helps society and communities at large. A recent study by the Building Research Establishment showed that improving bad housing in England could, for example, help make people healthier, which has the knock-on effects of boosting the economy and reducing the pressure on public services.

At Stef & Philips, we care deeply about how we can make a difference to peoples’ lives. By working with private investors and suppliers in housing, and by thinking about the people living there, we’ve done things that really help improve lives. With more investment and new ideas in housing, we can work with others to support people in more ways than just giving them a place to live – which is especially important for the most vulnerable people in society. But without private companies helping out, we wouldn’t be able to do this as effectively or well.

Now’s the time for governments and businesses to better understand how working together can help everyone. Groups can use each other’s strengths to come up with answers that help the economy, bring new ideas, and deal with big problems. By making these connections now, we can start solving some of the biggest problems we have today.