Clegg slams Barnet's easyCouncil model

Nick Clegg has criticised Barnet LBC’s plans to adopt a pricing model similar to that of low-cost airlines.

The so-called ‘easyCouncil’ project for mass outsourcing of service delivery and a radical reform of public provision is being dubbed as a blueprint for Tory Government.

The Liberal Democrat leader slammed the Conservative council’s plans, which will enable residents the ability to pay extra to receive a higher level of service.

‘I think that using the Easyjet model is totally misguided,’ Mr Clegg told the Times. ‘It’s not a question of which council can flog off the services to the cheapest private sector provider. If you are going to use the private sector, they have to be in competition.

‘The wholesale transfer of a public sector monopoly to a private sector one – as happened with First Buses in my constituency – is the worst thing.’