Public sector asset sale: Government needs to be more radical to raise money, says KPMG

12 October 2009

Stephen Murphy, Partner at KPMG, comments on the proposed sale of government assets:

"There is certainly a big opportunity to raise significant sums of money through the sale of public sector assets, both those owned by the government and those owned by local authorities.

"However, progress to date has been very slow. Today we are no closer to the sale of most of the assets listed as 'for sale' at the time of the budget than we were six months ago. To make an impact, government will have to find a way of accelerating the sale process.

"Although money can be raised through the sale of assets identified, the sums available (other than student loan book) are relatively small, especially in the current market, compared with the size of the overall public sector deficit.

"To further help tackle the fiscal problem, the government would need to consider more radical options for example, looking at whether the management of some core operations could be transferred out of the public sector."

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to ePolitix.com. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the ePolitix.com service.

As such, ePolitix.com does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.