PFI schools will cost the country’s councils almost £430 million this year, it has emerged.

Figures provided by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe) reveal the continuing cost of private finance initiative (PFI) deals struck years ago to upgrade and rebuild the country’s school network.

The deals, which typically run for around 30 years, were introduced under the Tory Government in the early 1990s and their use increased after Labour took charge at Westminster and led Holyrood in coalition with the LibDems.

Billed as a way to avoid large one-off payments for public service projects, the contracts see private sector organisations take on design, construction, finance and management roles.

The Skye Bridge was the first PFI project in the UK and, with around nine per cent of the UK population, Scotland accounts for around 40 per cent of its PFI schools.

Critics say these are more expensive than those built using traditional funding methods and are a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Now SPICe figures show local authorities will pay £426.8m for PFI schools during this financial year against a total capital value of £3.037 billion.

South Lanarkshire Council alone signed arrangements worth £318.9m and faces charges of £33.2m this year.

In Edinburgh, where a wall collapse in 2016 prompted the emergency closure of 17 schools, the authority agreed two rounds of deals worth £208m and £129m.

An investigation which reported in February found a number of flaws at similar schools.

These included sites in Inverclyde, East Renfrewshire, Dundee and Angus, which has the lowest PFI schools spend at £45.7m and will pay a £6.2m bill this year.

Meanwhile, Glasgow will pay £54m based on its £225m capital value, with two rounds of deals in Stirling worth £100m resulting in a £14.8m payout in 2017-18.

At the time of the crisis in Edinburgh – which saw affected sites shut for 500 days – Labour leader Kezia Dugdale defended her party’s use of PFI, stating she had “nothing to apologise for, for building schools” and said the poor state of facilities meant swift action had to be taken.

The SNP’s James Dornan, convenor of Holyrood’s Education and Skills Committee, said the public are paying for a “mess” created more than a decade ago, calling the issue Labour’s “toxic legacy”.

Councillor Sheena Wardhaugh, SNP group spokesperson for South Lanarkshire Council, said her party had opposed the signing of the local deal in 2003, adding: “The cost of the maintenance contract over a 30-year period will be in excess of £1.2 billion.

“To keep build costs down, schools were closed and merged. Six high schools in East Kilbride were merged into three, resulting in huge schools not the optimum size, especially for pastoral support.

“The contract seemed to provide what was needed. However, already we are about to face capacity problems because of the development of new communities.”

Wardhaugh, who said this year’s unitary charge could be better used on more teachers or specialist staff for pupils with additional support needs, suggested extensions may now have to be created at some facilities.

She added: “Anything which requires a variation of the contract would be very expensive.”

South Lanarkshire Council said its young people now learn in the best schools estate on the continent as a result of its spend, which was carefully planned.

A spokesperson said: “Over the last decade one of the biggest public building projects in the UK has been South Lanarkshire’s schools modernisation programme.

“In that time we have built 17 new secondary schools and are working towards completing our programme covering all 128 primary schools.

“As a result, we believe we now have the best schools estate anywhere in Europe, where more than 40,000 children and young people are being taught in new and modern school buildings.

“As a council we agreed to invest in providing the best learning opportunities for our young people, recognising that high-quality learning and teaching inspires learners, creates high aspirations and improves educational outcomes.

“As part of the funding package agreed with government for these schools, significant levels of grant funding are received by the council, and the overall costs of the repayment for the schools are planned for and built into the council’s budgets.”

Controversies over the wider use of PFI in Scotland include that of Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, which took £180m to build and opened in 2002.

However, terms of the deal mean it is set to cost NHS Lothian around £1.4 billion. The facility will not automatically transfer to NHS ownership when the time is up, leaving officials to negotiate new terms or a buy-out.

Meanwhile, the Skye Bridge cost £21m to put up, but the Scottish Government then had to give an additional £27m to a private consortium to end the contract, despite drivers paying more than £33m in tolls before they were lifted.

Unison Scotland has long called for an end to the use of such schemes, with its head of policy Dave Watson stating: “We need to urgently look at the prospects for ending existing contracts and using low public sector borrowing costs to replace expensive private-sector debt.”