Soaring inflation and interest rates mean the viability of outsourcing providers should remain high on the Government's agenda four years after the collapse of Carillion, a think-tank debate has heard.

Director of the National Audit Office's commercial hub, Matthew Rees, told an Institute for Government debate: ‘We are in a period of economic challenge so it's something that should be higher up the Government's agenda [more than] perhaps at any time in the past few years.