Interserve, and the other companies running Britain that you’ve never heard of

Or: why are construction firms involved in your welfare?

an article by Anoosh Chakelian for the New Statesman


WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Have you heard of Interserve? If you’re one of its 45,000 employees in the UK, then yes. If you work in the country’s public sector, then probably. If not, you may have noticed but barely registered the studiedly bland name on a hospital cleaner’s uniform, a security guard’s badge, or a construction worker’s hi-vis vest.

But you’re much more likely never to have heard of Interserve at all. Which is strange, given it’s one of the government’s largest contractors, providing an array of cleaning, security, maintenance, probation, healthcare and construction services across the country.

From train stations to schools, Interserve is there, running things (or not, in the case of its disastrous recent foray into the energy-from-waste industry, when the company racked up £630m debts).

Having refinanced with a £300m rescue deal last March and issued a profit warning last September, Interserve’s future hangs in the balance this week as it awaits shareholder backing for another rescue deal to avoid administration.

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Hazel’s comment:
The numbers are too vast for my head to cope with. Outsourcing can be a good thing but not on this scale and definitely not allowing companies to be bailed out by government again and again.

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