Despite saying how much they hated PFI, the government is to press ahead with 61 PFI (private finance initiatives). The Chancellor when in opposition he denounced them as poor value for money.
The 61 projects worth a staggering £6.9 billion have been taken forward since the general election by the coalition Government.
The Labour Party loved throwing our money towards private companies, comitting future generations to many years of waste.
Darren Johnson, Trade and Industry spokesperson for the Green Party said today, “In opposition both Osborne and Vince Cable said that PFI was poor value for the taxpayer. The Chancellor described it as ‘a discredited model’ whilst the Business Secretary called it “a dishonest system of accounting, designed to hide taxpayers’ liabilities.” Now they are in Government, they intend to press ahead.”
The Green Party has likened PFI to a giant scheme of outdoor relief for private contractors, equivalent to buying your house on a credit card. Darren Johnson concluded, “We would end it.”
5 years ago
4 comments:
If you bought your house on credit card, you would be allowed to turn the lights off without asking MBNA's permission to do so; so PFI is a lot worse than that.
Most people need credit to buy a house. Even though in some sence the bank owns part of the house, as long as payments are made they dont take an active part in running it. Perhaps I am missing something here Jonathan.
There have been reports in the media that the classrooms in some schools built on PFI contracts don't have lightswitches. If you want to have the lights switched off, you have to make an application to the PFI operator, who will consider it, and if they accept the application, will turn them off from their central control room and charge a management fee for doing so.
For example http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/8282455/PFI-70m-bill-for-schools-that-had-to-close.html and there is a lot more reports where that one came from.
Cheers Jonathan, I see the light now.
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