Get your wallets out ......

[Bluebirdjones]

... for the next 20, 30, 40 years.

We'll be paying for this for the rest of our lifetimes..... and possibly our children, and maybe even their children.

PFI will ultimately cost £300bn

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...pfi-cost-300bn

......"The 717 PFI contracts currently under way across the UK are funding new schools, hospitals and other public facilities with a total capital value of £54.7bn, but the overall ultimate cost will reach £301bn by the time they have been paid off over the coming decades"

".....for example, while the capital cost of rebuilding Calderdale Royal Hospital in Yorkshire is £64.6m, the scheme will end up costing Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust a total of £773.2m"

[lastlid]

I was looking at the plans for the Alderhey Childrens hospital in Liverpool. Looks fantastic. A PFI scheme.

[Bluebirdjones]

All PFI schemes are great if you ignore the cost.

Far better (and cheaper) to borrow the money directly from the government, but that would be "on balance sheet", and add to govt debt, whereas PFI is "off balance sheet" funding and doesn't (for statistical purposes) increase government debt.

[CBM]

"PFI" was always going to be a rip off. Unfortunately for the voting and tax paying public, it is a rip off that crosses the Party line - both Labour and Conservative governments have gone in for it.

It is hugely tempting because it allows the Government to borrow "off balance sheet" - there is no visible increase in the national debt from PFI.

However, whilst the "theory" , or rather, the excuse, for PFI is that "the private sector always does it more efficiently" this hides the obvious truths that:

1. Private sector borrowing costs are always higher than Government borrowing costs

2. The Government is in effect guaranteeing the loans raised by the private sector contractors

3. Most important - the Government lacks effective oversight of what the private sector contractors get up to - the phrase "Public - Private partnership" should sound alarm bells for everyone - who in the "public" consented to this "partnership"? Did you? The opportunities for corruption are altogether too tempting.

The truth is that this is a part of the national debt, because we are guaranteeing it. A handful of contractors have got very rich, thanks to the s.hameful dishonesty of the political class

[Dedworth]

More to thank Blair and Bottler for

[lastlid]

"PFI" was always going to be a rip off. Unfortunately for the voting and tax paying public, it is a rip off that crosses the Party line - both Labour and Conservative governments have gone in for it.

It is hugely tempting because it allows the Government to borrow "off balance sheet" - there is no visible increase in the national debt from PFI.

However, whilst the "theory" , or rather, the excuse, for PFI is that "the private sector always does it more efficiently" this hides the obvious truths that:

1. Private sector borrowing costs are always higher than Government borrowing costs

2. The Government is in effect guaranteeing the loans raised by the private sector contractors

3. Most important - the Government lacks effective oversight of what the private sector contractors get up to - the phrase "Public - Private partnership" should sound alarm bells for everyone - who in the "public" consented to this "partnership"? Did you? The opportunities for corruption are altogether too tempting.

The truth is that this is a part of the national debt, because we are guaranteeing it. A handful of contractors have got very rich, thanks to the s.hameful dishonesty of the political class

Yes, we don't seem to have much choice in the matter. I was unaware of such programs / methods of funding being proposed (probably partly as I wasn't tuned in to this sort of thing in Aberdeen - is this an English thing btw?) but it would seem to be a done deal, in many cases.

[CBM]

Scotland is in it as well...read and weep...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_finance_initiative

[Dedworth]

Here is a Panorama expose of this scandalous state of affairs, I watched it late last year when it was first broadcast

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode...on_your_Money/

[mickcant]

Its loke going to a back street money lender
Mick.