Carillion collapse good for taxpayer

Actually this is a good example of capitalism doing its job. Carillion had become a badly run business that was buying work too cheaply. The taxpayer was benefiting from a public company fulfilling contracts at way below their real cost.

Rightly, the government didn’t bail out Carillion and as a result the shareholders have lost all their investment and the lending banks have had to write off all their loans. That is capitalism.  

Going forward, clients will not tolerate a situation where subcontractors are not paid promptly at the time they pay the main contractor. All of us, shareholders, banks and clients, have got burnt and we will all learn from this lesson. In the future, the public sector may have to bear more of the real cost of the services it receives.