If you want an example of how the public sector has become as hard-faced and hard-hearted as the business sector look at how it goes about collecting debt.

Local authorities are increasingly setting the bailiffs on people who owe the council money. According to the Money Advice Trust the use of 'enforcement agents' by councils is up 16% in the past two years with 2.1m bailiff referrals from April 2014 to March 2015. This isn't just down to unpaid parking fines.