2010 we spent 3.6 billion a year on consultants.

You know, people reading our watch, telling us a time.

Civil service Stephen is like an infinite wall.

Infinitely high, infinitely wide.

Every 10 billion pound we save is half a million junior nursing salaries for year.

It's 3 million primary school places.

When you run in a business and the

civil services is fundamentally a business, needs to have a strategy, a vision, a plan, and then

you've got to execute the plan. You want to have the best talent in the right swim lanes to deliver

that. What percentage of procurement, that's government purchase of goods and services, A, went to

British companies and B went to British companies and

B went to smaller companies, and how did that change on your watch? That's a great question.

So, government spends on public procurement, 430 billion in year. 430 billion. We're delighted to say

that this year, the rest is money, is powered by Octopus Energy. So we're joined by its founder and CEO, Greg Jackson.

So Greg, I heard that the prices of solar and home battery storage are falling. So is it worth waiting before you invest in them?

First of all, we never know what's going to happen to the future price of energy. It could go up or go down.

So I think when people try to do a really detailed payback calculation, the problem is you don't really know what the alternative is.

But I don't know many people who've regretted getting these technologies because the one thing, whenever you get them, is it helps insulate against the volatility of the market prices.

And so as far as I can tell, the vast majority of people who've made that decision are happy with it.

Greg, thank you very much. Now on with today's episode.

This episode is brought to you by Shopify.

Now, these days, it's all about who you work with. You know, I couldn't imagine doing this podcast without Robert Peston. You know, he's the font of all knowledge. Sometimes too much knowledge, but never mind. But if you think about partnerships and collaborations, sometimes you might not put them together, but they totally work. Gary Lineker and Walker's Crisps, that's another one.

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