Politico interview
This interview was published by Politico on 7 November 2024.
PF-WHY: It’s no secret that many public-private deals struck in the U.K. are a bit … crap. But with Labour insisting government collaboration with business is gonna get all that lovely economic growth going, is there a way to give the whole process a shot in the arm?
Enter Negotient: Launched in January this year by a group of experienced former government advisers and ex-public affairs pros, Negotient reckons it has the answer: boosting negotiation skills so good deals are agreed from the very start.
Good timing: The good news, according to Negotient co-founder and ex-Treasury adviser James Dowling, is that Labour have had a pretty consistent message about improving those partnerships for quite some time. “I think they’re trying to walk the talk,” Dowling says, although he adds: “We’ve yet to see the follow through, and that’s understandable simply because it’s very early days.”
Targets: Negotient reckons decades of blinkered thinking have contributed to the U.K. government’s spotty record on landing strong private-public partnerships. “One of the problems you find is [these deals] are excessively focused on price,” Dowling says. “It’s absolutely right the public sector gets the best price it can for the taxpayer — that’s reasonable — but often the price is at the expense of sustainability.”
First steps: Overhauling those dynamics is going to require a shake-up in Whitehall, Dowling argues. He’s calling for more focus on outcomes and more freedom for government negotiators to strike deals that consider more than pounds and pence. “I think it’s quite difficult because of our bureaucratic culture, where often the government will go into a negotiations having pre-agreed its position and then handed that to the negotiators at the table, and that becomes then very difficult to change,” he acknowledges.
Our bad: Media and political scrutiny of government tie-ups remains too focused on cash and not outcomes, Dowling argues. That leads to defensiveness in Whitehall and punishes long-term thinking.
But but but: Dowling sees signs of hope, and talks up a new medicines deal between industry and Whitehall his shop helped advise on. “Often these negotiations will flounder because they’ve concentrated too much on winning at the table, not the deal’s sustainability,” Dowling adds. Negotient instead advises stakeholders to take a step back and think strategically about areas of agreement, bones of contention, and the consequences of walking away from talks.
Happy families: “It’s not just about the thing that looks like a win for you, but the thing that all parties can walk away with thinking this is something they can stick with over the medium term,” he says.