Aalborg Universitet INOPS Technical Report A study of contracting out of park and road maintenance in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and United Kingdom Lindholst, Andrej Christian Publication date: 2017 Document Version Også kaldet Forlagets PDF Link to publication from Aalborg University Citation for published version (APA): Lindholst, A. C. (2017). INOPS Technical Report: A study of contracting out of park and road maintenance in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and United Kingdom. Department of Political Science, Aalborg University. General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. ? Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. ? 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Downloaded from vbn.aau.dk on: November 29, 2020 TECHNICAL REPORT Innovationer i det offentlige-private samspil (INOPS) (Innovations in the organization of public-private relations) A study of contracting out of park and road maintenance in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and United Kingdom Andrej Christian Lindholst Department of Political Science Aalborg University Aalborg January 2017 INOPS Technical report Contents 1 FOREWORD ............................................................................................................................. 10 2 INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT .................................................................................... 13 2.1 Relevance and policy context .............................................................................................. 13 2.2 Research aim and key questions .......................................................................................... 16 2.3 Methods ............................................................................................................................... 17 2.4 Reading guide to the technical report .................................................................................. 20 3 EARLIER RESEARCH ON CONTRACTING OUTCOMES ................................................. 21 3.1 Park maintenance: Ten studies ............................................................................................ 21 3.2 Road maintenance: one study .............................................................................................. 33 3.3 Short summary .................................................................................................................... 34 3.4 Methods for literature search ............................................................................................... 34 4 ANALYSIS – COUNTRY CONTEXTS ................................................................................... 37 4.1 Denmark .............................................................................................................................. 37 4.2 Sweden ................................................................................................................................ 45 4.3 Norway ................................................................................................................................ 58 4.4 The United Kingdom ........................................................................................................... 70 5 ANALYSIS – REASONS FOR USING PRIVATE CONTRACTORS ................................... 90 5.1 Purposes for using private contractors ................................................................................ 90 5.2 Explanations for variations in purposes ............................................................................ 101 6 ANALYSIS – ORGANIZING CONTRACTING OUT .......................................................... 118 6.1 Managing and organizing contracting out ......................................................................... 118 6.2 Managing contracting out .................................................................................................. 122 6.3 Organization of contractual relations ................................................................................ 126 1 INOPS Technical report 6.4 Explanatory analysis of contract frameworks ................................................................... 159 6.5 International Comparisons ................................................................................................ 165 7 ANALYSIS – OUTCOMES .................................................................................................... 173 7.1 Outcomes from the use of private contractors ................................................................... 173 7.2 Cost effects ........................................................................................................................ 178 7.3 Exploring differences in cost effects ................................................................................. 180 7.4 Explanatory analysis of cost effects .................................................................................. 191 7.5 Comparing cost effects across Denmark, Sweden, Norway and UK ................................ 194 7.6 Performance evaluations ................................................................................................... 206 7.7 Exploring differences in performance ............................................................................... 207 7.8 Explanatory analysis of performance in Denmark ............................................................ 211 7.9 Comparing performance across Denmark, Sweden, Norway and UK .............................. 217 8 ANALYSIS – CASE STUDIES .............................................................................................. 222 8.1 Case overview ................................................................................................................... 222 8.2 The ‘standard’ municipality .............................................................................................. 224 8.3 Five Danish cases of change in contractual arrangements ................................................ 233 9 REFERENCES......................................................................................................................... 243 2 INOPS Technical report List of Tables Table 1. Chronological overview on studies on outcomes from contracting out maintenance services in parks and green spaces. ..................................................................................................................................... 22 Table 2. Characteristics of Danish municipalities ........................................................................................................... 40 Table 3. The use of different provider types for provision of parks and road maintenance services ................................ 43 Table 4. Current distribution (un-weighted) of parks and roads maintenance budgets between different types of service providers ................................................................................................................................. 44 Table 5. Municipal typology according to SALAR (2011). ............................................................................................ 46 Table 6. National administration agencies within green and technical areas ................................................................... 51 Table 7. Institutional frameworks and support systems for tendering in green and black areas ...................................... 55 Table 8. Importance of purposes for using in-house provision and private contractors .................................................. 96 Table 9. Importance of purposes for using private contractors in four countries............................................................. 99 Table 10. Differences in purposes of the importance of the purposes for using private contractors across five administration regions.............................................................................................................................. 102 Table 11. Differences in purposes for using private contractors for road and park maintenance between respondents with and without operational responsibilities .............................................................................. 103 Table 12. Differences in purposes for using in-house provision for road and park maintenance between respondents with and without operational responsibilities .............................................................................. 104 Table 13. Differences in purposes for using private contractors between municipalities with higher and lower levels of political support for contracting out road and park maintenance ........................................... 106 Table 14. Differences in purposes for using private contractors between municipalities with higher and lower levels of administrative support for contracting out road and park maintenance .................................. 107 Table