Why have councils fallen out of love with outsourcing vital services? | Lizzie Presser

From flood responses in Cumbria to IT in Essex - more than one in three public-private partnership deals return in house, finds Guardian survey

Storm Desmond decimated historic Pooley Bridge, over river Eamont at the northern end of Ullswater, in December, when more than a trillion litres of rain in the north-west flooded more than 7,000 properties and closed down three major highways in the Lake District. Officials in Cumbria say one unlikely factor proved crucial in the flood recovery that followed: the council's decision a few years earlier to bring its outsourced major highway and housing services back in-house.

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