Why public services aren't working

My letter to the new British Prime Minister.  

Please email me for the enclosures or look them up on my personal website.

                                                                                                                                        6 August 2026

The Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP,

Prime Minister,

10 Downing Street,

London, SW1A 2AA

Dear Prime Minister

If I may I wish to add my personal perspective on how and why public services in UK are just not working.

I do so as a human resources and human rights professional who lived and worked abroad for 30 years but have re-engaged with UK authorities since 2016 on approaching retirement. The period coincides with when you left Parliament in 2017 to be Greater Manchester Mayor.

Since then I have had to deal with many officials at national and local level. Unlike when I served in local government in the 1970s and 80s, I get the impression that their hearts are not in their work. They do not try to get things right in the first place. They do not take care to communicate their decisions to people affected, nor to tell them what options there are to take matters further. They no longer serve their public.

Now if that is not bad enough, I've seen a series of check and balances intended to right wrongs that don't work or just don't work well enough.

• Regulators don't regulate or intervene if they can avoid it.

• Inspectors don't inspect, or tend not to find faults, as if they do, they are ignored. One advocate of customer service was sacked. A predecessor was compelled to resign.

• Examiners don't examine, are reluctant to accept cases for review, and if they do their default is to side with the officials, not that the officials they review pay heed to them anyway.

• Ombudsmen don't “ombud”. They too avoid accepting cases. If they are persuaded to do so, it then raises justifiable doubts about how they exercise their judgments thereafter.

It is my contention, Prime Minister, that the government must tackle these poorly performing enforcers of good public service, as well as those original civil servants and local government officials not performing well, if the reputation of British public life is to be restored.

We need to know to whom and how are the enforcers accountable? Each in various ways is given independence to operate with no outside “interference” in case-work. One Parliamentary Committee has already asked “Who regulates the regulators?” Are these exclusive powers assigned to “experts” at the expense of everyday common-sense that our elected members are supposed to bring?

At times I have submitted evidence to Parliamentary Committees and Enquiries. Very often this evidence is not accepted even though I cite examples to illustrate systemic failings. I am told they don't accept personal cases. With respect without personal cases, duly collected and analysed, and repeated failings and patterns identified from successive cases, Committees don't get full pictures.

I set out in the attached paper a summary of personal cases to illustrate my contentions.

Yours sincerely

John Lowrie

House 444, Takhmau, Kandal, Cambodia (Until 9 September.)

19 Hotspur St, Alnwick, NE66 1QE, Northumberland.