Anyone with memories that stretch back to a time when mobile phones were the size of bricks will be familiar with the long and often tortuous history of in-house versus privatised council services.

In pre-Thatcher years, in-house direct labour organisations (DLOs) controlled council services, often inefficiently. The Thatcher Government swung provision the other way, with compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) that forced in-house teams to compete with privatised operators, primarily on price.