Two points Dave:
1) there may only be 30 pubs but, if a licence is required for all public places, ie not just pubs, then the number of licences required will dramatically increase.
2) it is a media/govt myth that the private sector can do the same things more cheaply than local authorities, what they can and often will do is try to pass off an inferior service ( using poor quality resources and fewer more poorly paid staff) as the same service; or as in the case of PFI appear to offer a better value by a lower bid but frequently have major time & cost overruns which the LA or HA then has to pay for and bail out the project. Some examples: Edinborugh Royal Infirmary has a shortfall of £40 million because it's business case was seriously flawed, an extra £24 million will be needed every year over the next 4 years for it to break even. Child support agency, cost of failure of new computer to speed up calculation of benefits £50 million over budget, repeatedly delayed. Tower Hamlets Council in E London, when prices were requested during the final competative stage the consortium bid for the schools building project was £40million, after being selected as sole preferred bidder it increased this to £55 million. These are NOT isolated incidents and this does not include the costs of having to rebuild parts of projects because they were unsuitable for the purpose such as the hospital where 10 of the operation theatres were too dark to work in or the police stations that were built ignoring police security design principles. So please don't make bland statements about how we all know that the private sector can do things cheaper cos it's a myth.