Greenhaus Public Communication

This article is part of the Lobbying Portal, a sunlight project from Spinwatch.

Greenhaus Public Communication claims to be "the largest independent Scottish public affairs consultancy". It has offices in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Links with Scottish Labour

It has intimate links to the Labour establishment in Scotland.

• Its director Chris Winslow, associate director Neil Gillam and associate consultant Jo Nove have all worked for the Labour Party, often in its higher echelons. Chris Winslow was a special adviser to Donald Dewar in 1999 and worked closely with John Rafferty another special adviser and Dewar's chief of staff. Rafferty was forced to resign over an issue of reported dishonesty. Winslow went soon after. The pair were linked again after Winslow set up Greenhaus and won a lucrative PR contract with UnLtd a sort of venture philanthropy organisation engaged in 'social enterprise'. UnLtd was based in the same offices as Demos and was run by John Rafferty.
• A current employee Jamie Maxton is the son of ex Labour MP John Maxton.
• Tony McElroy worked for Greenhaus after acting as a press officer for Scottish Labour during the 1999 Scottish election and the 2001 General Election. He is now back working for the Labour Party in its Scottish press office.

It is open to speculation whether the close links Greenhaus have to Scottish Labour help them provide some of their public affairs services. Greenhaus themselves clearly infer this. Its website states that "Greenhaus is ideally placed to assist companies and organisations that are concerned with maximising their profile and reputation within Scottish public life" given their access to "the relatively small and interlinked networks of Scottish Politics, decision makers and the media [which] can often be difficult to penetrate". It is ideally placed to penetrate these networks as they themselves are part of these very networks. As they suggest: "The expert only senior counsel that Greenhaus public communication brings to a client portfolio combines first-hand knowledge of the parliament and the Scottish Executive, potential policy outcomes, legislative direction, personalities and its limitations. This provides unique insight and value to any external relations strategy".

Helping clients

First Group: One client of Greenhaus,First Group, won a lucrative public contract when they were a client of Greenhaus. In 2004 they were awarded the £1.75 billion contract to run Scotland's railways. While Chris Winslow admitted to setting up meetings with senior First Group figures and Labour MSP's he denied any improper conduct, reported the Sunday Times (13 June 2004). Coincidentally, Nicol Stephen, the Lib-Dem Scottish Transport Minister and now the Lib-Dem leader and Deputy First Minister, was previously employed by First Group as a consultant.

Boston Scientific: Greenhaus is also represented on the Scottish Parliament Cross-Party group on Diabetes. Kate Cunningham an employee of Greenhaus was at a meeting on the second of February 2005. One of Greenhaus' clients is the Pharmaceutical company Boston Scientific who in 2005, published results of their clinical trials of their new Coronary Artery disease treatment Taxus Express- Paliaxel eluting coronary stent system. They state that one of the main groups of beneficiaries could be diabetics.

Lloyds Pharmacy: Another of their clients, Lloydspharmacy, is working with PR and lobbying firm APCO in England. Their reasoning is as APCO UK director Martin Sawer said: 'We need to ensure Lloyds Pharmacy is engaged in the revolution in healthcare, which means making services more accessible to the public.' Their strategy involves courting favour in Westminster. In July 2005, PR Week reported:

"[Lloyds Pharmacy] will operate a diabetes 'testing station' in the House of Commons this October, hosted by diabetes sufferer Sir Steve Redgrave, to test MPs for the condition. The company's in-store consultation areas currently offer customers blood, cholesterol and diabetes screening".

It also noted that:

"APCO will work with lobbying firm Morgan Allen Moore in Wales and Green-Haus Communications in Scotland to help service the account, which it has held for the past six years".

This suggests that the involement of Greenhaus in the CrossParty group on diabetes is clear. To ensure Lloyds Pharmacy gain an advantage in the burgeoning 'market' of healthcare.

Clients

Lobbying clients listed in 2009: Prudential | First Scotrail | O2 | Amey | NHBC | McCain Foods | National Australia Bank | Royal & Sun Alliance | Wrigley Company | Heritage Lottery Fund | Lloydspharmacy | Merck Sharp & Dohme | Ochre (Oesophageal Cancer Has Reached Everywhere) | Energy Retail Association | Scottish Power Energy Wholesale | Health Foundation | Intel

Services

Some of the the services offered by Greenhaus include:

• identifying and designing the appropriate political strategy, specific to the clients needs.
• identifying key audiences and agreeing key messages
• Networking activities to assist with profile and positioning

They also "give expert only advice, assistance and co-ordination" to help with:

• Issue management
• Government relations
• Media relation
• Procurement

Resources

• Greenhaus UK Staff and clients 30.11.03 - 31.05.04
• Greenhaus UK Staff and clients 01.06.04 - 30.11.04
• Green-Haus UK Staff and clients, 30 November 2004 to 31 May 2005

References

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