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New figures released by the Scottish Government reveal that PFI contracts are hitting local authority education budgets.

The figures were included in a written answer to the SNP’s Christina McKelvie and showed that in 2008-09 PFI contracts took a £244 million chunk out of Scottish education, this was an increase of £62 million on the 2007-08 figure.

PFI was adopted by Labour as the means of funding capital building projects in the UK, it was based on the PPP system originally dreamed up by the Conservatives.  However the mechanism has been attacked by trade Unions and others who point to the massive profits being made by companies at the public’s expense.

Commenting, SNP MSP Ms McKelvie, a member of Holyrood's Education Committee, said:
"A full 5 per cent of funds that should have been spent on education services in Scotland has drained away down Labour's PFI plughole.

"The huge sum of £244 million that this represents lays bare the dreadful legacy of Labour's PFI obsession, the burden of which is now being borne by Scotland's schools, teachers, parents and pupils. When they were in office, Labour chose to mortgage the financial future of Scotland's councils and the upshot is that, with each passing year, larger and larger sums of money are having to be taken out of Scotland's classrooms in order to pay the PFI bills.

"In my own area, almost £15 million was slashed from the South Lanarkshire education budget alone. Councils across Scotland are obliged to pay for the private profits of the PFI companies before they can even begin to think about buying a single book or employing a single teacher or classroom assistant."

The SNP have opposed the mechanism arguing that it is not cost effective and pointing out that future generations are being saddled with huge debts, they have halted the use of such funding in Scotland and have set up the Scottish Futures Trust as an alternative.

However Labour have continued with the practice in England and last year the Treasury had to step in and underwrite PFI contracts South of the border that were in danger of collapsing as the UK banking crisis hit hard.

Attacking Labour’s PFI debt legacy Ms McKelvie added:
"At a time when all public sector spending in Scotland has been put under enormous pressure by the £800 million of cuts imposed on the Scottish budget by Labour at Westminster, local authorities are having to cope with this additional drain on their resources imposed by Labour in Scotland.

"Only the SNP can be trusted to work to protect spending on frontline services such as education, in the face not only of Labour cuts but of Labour's PFI debt legacy as well."

Comments  

 
# mato21 2010-05-02 12:55
Anyone with a modicum of common sense or a basic knowledge of maths saw this train crash coming down the line before the train left the station,even at this late date as the chickens come home to roost not a shred of shame from the architects of this disaster
 
 
# robbie 2010-05-02 13:03
Can we not have a comment from labours finacial dunderheid Andy (clueless) Kerr.
 
 
# Traquir 2010-05-02 13:10
PFI in general appears to just be another scam which has been setup to line the pockets of the comrades along the same lines of the SPT and the proposed GARL (no wonder the comrades were so furious with the SNP since one of their pig troughs in the making was dismantled). A few examples of PFI return on investments (return for the comrades and their buddies of course not the people of Scotland) are -

Scam / capital invested by companies / projected cash return

New Royal Infirmary, Edinburgh / £20m / £228m
County Hospital, Hereford / £9m / £92m
Hairmyres Hospital, East Kilbride / £8m / £145m
Council offices and car park, Perth / £2m / £31m
Eleven schools, Highland / £2m / £12m
James Watt College, Kilwinning / 0.7m / £9m
TOTAL / £42m / £517m

see - tinyurl.com/7l77qc
tinyurl.com/4g929h
tinyurl.com/4drrc6

Glasgow City Council has amassed so much PFI debt they need to pay a £6.47 million annual charge and close their schools.

see - tinyurl.com/qes7jh

And of course Labour being Labour try and hide this massive PFI debt (now at least £216 billion) by trying to keep it off the books despite being ordered to recognized it as part of the already massive national debt.

"Treasury 'manipulating' PFI books"

see - tinyurl.com/n734gq

The Brit Nats appear to be so delusional only they think that Labour is some paragon of financial frugality whereas in reality as with the last Labour Government their massive financial incompetence has been exposed at great cost. Of course the reality is that like Gordon Brown to smile to our faces whilst lying and cheating us behind closed doors.

Apparently PFI is just part of the carefully nurtured entitlement evolutionary path of the 'Scottish' Labour comrades :

Councilor(PFI Scams, SPT etc)->
MSP(Wendy Style donation Fraud)->
MP(a pretty big Pig Trough)->
An unelected tax free Lord wrapped in Ermine for life
(the Golden Pig Trough which is the ultimate goal of all of the comrades)
->British Made Millionaire.

No wonder 'Scottish' Labour is
so against dismantling this British thing :)
 
 
# eye_write 2010-05-02 13:35
If this were news from a land abroad we would not hesitate to identify it as corruption. There's is one word for this here, 'corruption'.

That Labour has chosen to be corrupt with things like education budgets, as a mum I am quite outraged. I think all the mums in Scotland should know.
 
 
# eye_write 2010-05-02 13:48
I put it on mumsnet :-)
 
 
# RTP 2010-05-02 17:36
This has been known for a long time and don't forget Gray still wants the SNP to go down this road,just wait until the Tory's get in power I bet they will have a lot more figures to come out not that I'm to keen for them to win maybe a hung Government would be best for Scotland.
 
 
# kevinad72 2010-05-02 17:49
Well done Traquir, once again, putting the figures onto the scandal!
 
 
# kevinad72 2010-05-02 18:01
Cameron will certainly show up the negative side of the union, but once the dust settles on the Scottish political landscape the day after, there needs to be a new vision. We can surely do better than this. If Labour had an answer, why has it taken 13 years to see that it has not appeared?
 
 
# hektorsmum 2010-05-02 18:36
Would someone remind the Teachers Unions of this.
 
 
# G.Macp 2010-05-02 18:46
I know a lot of teachers who haven't put 2+2 together with regards to how labour councils have spent in other areas apart from education so they can say "Class sizes going up! Pupil/teacher ratios going up, no new recruits/teachers, failed election promises!"
The propaganda work done is pretty successful actually!
I hope labour get their behinds kicked on Thursday and next year!
 
 
# wee folding bike 2010-05-02 19:22
On the other hand there are some teachers who saw it coming in the late '90s when the whole PFI scam started.

Staff are not allowed to write to the Herald on matters like this.
 
 
# clachangowk 2010-05-02 19:04
I have posted this before but whenever i hear comments about PFI/PPP I think it bears repeating ---
Yvette Cooper, now a Treasury Minister, clearly voiced her concerns in an article in the Independent on July 26, 1996 when she attacked the then Conservative Government's proposals: "so long as the PFI is viewed as a wheeze to invest and provide services without the bill showing up on today's government balance sheet, serious problems will remain. The wheeze for the public finances and taxpayers of today risks being a burden on the public finances and taxpayers of tomorrow".

In his book " Pretty Straight Guys", Nick Cohen says " PFI had been introduced by Kenneth Clarke when he was Chancellor in the Major government.He cheerily admitted afterwards that the PFI was a dreadful idea. He had only accepted it as a temporary expedient because the Major government had enormous debts and he couldn't raise money any other way ------- New Labour turned Clarke's stopgap into a foundation of public finance."

So it appears that New Labour adopted a Tory wheeze and even now, when the costs are beginning to hurt they still push on with it; even blaming the SNP for not using PFI to build the new Forth bridge.

It would be laughable if the consequences were not so serious
 
 
# Somerled 2010-05-02 21:29
And so it goes on and on.
Scottish Futures Trust : Cost to-date £12million;Result s to-date £Zero
 
 
# Traquir 2010-05-02 23:52
Hmm, so no problem with the billions wasted on PFI the best you can manage is a snide attempt to deflect. As a hint if you are going to try and avoid the argument and try and deflect do try and get it right.

'Scottish Futures Trust : Cost to-date £12million;Result s to-date £Zero'

'The new Dumbarton Academy WILL be built, after the Scottish Futures Trust confirmed it will fund the construction. West Dunbartonshire Council will receive 12.1 million pounds, two hundred thousand more than expected and a year ahead of what was originally anticipated.'

see - tinyurl.com/2dtop8r

Now if you are truly looking for a waste of money and the PFI factual links above are not of interest to your agenda, here is
another example for you.

"TWENTY staff are employed at the £6million-a-year Scotland Office to cope with just three letters a day. "
2006-2007
see - tinyurl.com/y2oa8a8

"The Scotland Office’s own budget estimates reveals that the annual budget of the department will now cost taxpayers £8.7m in 2010"

see - tinyurl.com/ybe52c6

Then of course there are billions being lined up by the comrades to squander on illegal wars, WMDs, the East of London, ID cards. Interesting how Brit Nats (and I assume by form you or inflicted with that persuasion) appear to live in a never never land where an SNP bought Toblerone is of more financial significance than a new Trident submarine.

The good thing of course is that more and more Scots are waking up to web of lies that have been carefully spun and continue to be spun by Brit Nats and their obedient servants in the form of the media and of course 'Scottish' Labour comrades who are rewarded for their services with pots of gold often wrapped in ermine.

I know you don't like to be bothered with facts but here is one more on PFI.

"PFI: the £50 billion scam"

"Private companies could pocket up to £50 billion in profits from investing in schools, hospitals and other public building projects, an investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed."

see - tinyurl.com/7l77qc

I wonder how much of the £50 billion has earned it's way into the hands of friends of friends of the Comrades. As it is being quickly discovered the cocaine taking Purcell had a number of friends such as Labour Party donor Willie Haughey who have done rather well from the multi-billion budget managed by Purcell. The comrades all seem to do rather well for themselves with the likes of Curran on millionaire row & Gorbals Mick gone from nothing to multi-Millionaire where nothing but first class is good enough
of a man of his position, etc.
Very interesting how 'socialism' in Scotland seems to benefit the few yet decades after it has had it's vice like grip on Scotland the actual people they govern stagnate in hopelessness, poverty and poor health.

'Scottish' Labour and their scams such as PFI are a cancer on the Scottish nation and needs to be cured as quickly a possible. How anybody can adopt an apologist stance for this cancer is beyond me, rather they should be hanging their heads in shame and begging forgiveness.
 
 
# eye_write 2010-05-03 15:08
And so that makes PFI alright? Troll?
 
 
# Niall Ban 2010-05-04 14:53
Quoting eye_write:
And so that makes PFI alright? Troll?


It certainly does not. PFI/PPP costs the Scottish council taxpayer some £985 Millions per annum and will do so for up to the next 26 to 29 years. An utter waste of money which can only be described as a rip-off.
 

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