PFI LEGACY WILL BE WITH US FOR YEARS SAYS MATHER

Jim Mather, Argyll & Bute MSP, has commented on figures that have been revealed by his colleague Kenneth Gibson, MSP, about the huge burden that Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding for capital projects will place on the Scottish people over the next thirty years. Over the same period when the Scottish economy will suffer a reduction of £25 billion as public spending is reduced from Westminster in response to Labour's mismanagement thee this is a dramatic and telling exposure of their disastrous tenure of Scotland's public sector. At this time, of course, they were in partnership with the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

Mr Mather said,

"The figures extracted by Kenneth Gibson indicate that £6.7 billion will leave our NHS over the next 30 years as a result of financing agreements made under PFI contracts. This £6.7 billion of repayments under Labour's "buy now pay later" policy covers 27 identified capital projects with an estimated value of £1.28 billion and comes after close to £1 billion of repayments have already been made.

Individual examples of the folly of this policy are easily identified. Figures produced by the Scottish Parliament Information Centre and based on information from the Treasury indicate that Labour's last NHS PPP deal, signed on 1st May 2007 agreed repayments of £1.7 billion for the new acute services hospital at Larbert -a facility with an estimated capital cost of £293 million. It has been revealed that repayments for three hospitals built under Labour (Edinburgh, Wishaw and Hairmyres) repayments to be made over the next five years, will exceed the capital costs of the hospitals although payments will continue thereafter for a further 20 years.

The folly of PFI/PPP has been cruelly exposed at a time when public finances are under severe pressure from other directions. Every penny paid out in financing these "off the book" exercises is a penny less for the provision of healthcare over the next 30 years. The NHS and the people of Scotland will be paying the price of this reckless policy, foisted upon them by the coalition of Labour with Liberal Democrats, for years to come. The most alarming examples are set in the Central belt but the overall effect on future health financing will be felt throughout Scotland.

Scottish Labour politicians so blindly and enthusiastically criticising the Holyrood Government in their attempts to find economies within the NHS might reflect upon their role in the present situation. LibDems in their new position as junior partners at Westminster might see the irony of their condition in Scotland although past form suggests that might not take place overnight."