NHS LIFT and the new shape of neoliberal welfare

Abstract

The NHS LIFT (local improvement finance trust) programme is a new form of privatisation of UK primary care, based on the private finance initiative but going beyond it in important ways. It covers half of all English primary care trusts, and the approach has also been extended into education (the 'Building Schools for the Future' programme). The LIFT model embeds multinational capital and corporate forms into UK primary care and affects both staff and services, but challenges to it have been patchy and low-key. There is a need to theorise what this new development means for public services, and to examine the potential for resistance to it.