A LOT of nonsense is talked about PFI. Money tied up in bricks and mortar can’t be used to treat patients, so the NHS does not want to own a hospital, it just wants the use of one, and it wants that as soon as possible.
If the private sector wishes to build it immediately that is excellent, because the government does not have the money to do it for decades, or perhaps never, while untreated patients suffer or die.
The trick lies in negotiating the PFI terms with the private sector, and this is where things go wrong, because business skills are almost entirely absent from government and local authority.
Proof of that is the construction of the Scottish Parliament, managed by MSPs and civil servants, and delivered at a final cost of £700 million against a realistic starting figure of £100m.
If government had funded all the present PFI projects, the annual deficit and corresponding national debt would now be so large as to cast doubt over the value of sterling, with all that involves. That is conveniently overlooked by the critics of PFI.
Malcolm Parkin
Kinross
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