In recent years, transnational corporations and financial investors have been capturing more and more areas of social infrastructure. Profit-maximizing business models – in particular profit skimming, tax avoidance and “cherry picking” – pose a risk to general welfare as well as to the stability of society and the economy.

This AK EUROPA policy brief examines which opportunities have been provided for private investors to participate in critical social infrastructure in fields of housing, health and care and compares the different degrees of neoliberal transformation in the UK, Germany and Austria.

Against the backdrop of this research, AK demands that protective measures need to be strengthened. This includes (1) higher transparency standards, especially regarding disclosure of ultimate owners, (2) more public funding for the provision of critical social infrastructures, (3) stricter rules on employment in the care and health sectors and (4) strengthening of non/limited-profit schemes (“Gemeinnützigkeit”).