A policy programme like that proposed in this report requires initiative to start in the public sector to set the objectives. But implementation through a dynamic and localised mixture of public and private delivery channels is both practically necessary and desirable.
Prosperity 2030 holds no creed about public versus private. Ownership is not one of its commitments. What it requires of any provider, public or private, is that they drive down the cost of basic living until cost is no longer a barrier to the society's long-term resilience. A British Academy working group1 called for social and environmental value to be embedded in investment decision-making and policy development. Prosperity 2030 carries that further by specifying co-location of funding and responsibility where decision-taking power exists across local government and utility infrastructures.
Less than 20% of all the expenditure in the programme is specifically assigned to inescapably public responsibilities, such as digital and utility infrastructure and democratic upgrades, and some of those elements will include substantial private sector participation.