PFI - A waste of taxpayers' money?

4.11.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 29th Aug 2006

Andrew Dakers, Leader of Hounslow Liberal Democrats, outside PFI funded West Middlesex hospital

Andy Mayer (Lib Dem member in Southwark) writes an intelligent analysis on the use of PFI for Government projects, featured in a documentary last week (Dispatches - Channel 4). The re-building of the West Middlesex Hospital in Isleworth was funded by PFI - taxpayers splashed out £2.3m on "advisers" alone for the project - virtually the same amount spent on advisers for the notorious Dartford & Gravesend NHS trust which let the first PFI contract 4 years earlier.

It is interesting to note that the West Middlesex Hospital is currently running a £9m deficit - with cut-backs now being implemented which surely must impact patient care.

So what are the alternatives to PFI? Not a lot. Local authorities are unable to raise capital for large projects in other ways; and the Government likes PFI because it doesn't count against public sector borrowing.

In the US, democratically issued bonds are used to raise money for public projects. Control and operational remain in the public sector, and private finance can be accessed.

The Government needs to look beyond PFI. Or we might find that as the payments for the accumulating PFI contracts build, that there's no money left for new projects.

Andy Mayer's article is at http://andymayer.blogspot.com/2006/08/browns-pfi-timebomb.html