PFIs are crippling public services with unsustainable debt

"Private Finance Initiatives (PFIs) created to fund public services in Britain have enabled flagrant profiteering and crippled public bodies with unsustainable debt, social justice campaigners have warned."

"Debt justice campaign The People vs Barts PFI says a radical solution is required to stop banks and investment funds from profiteering from Britain’s public assets. In a policy paper titled ‘The Private Finance Initiative,’ the group argues the UK’s PFI model must be challenged."

"Authored by Senior Lecturer in Economics at Greenwich University Dr Helen Mercer, the report outlines radical measures for resolving Britain’s PFI crisis. It has attracted the interest of academics, economists, debt justice campaigners and politicians since its release."

 Unsustainable debt

"PFIs operate through firms known as Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), and use private capital to fund public infrastructural development. They have been adopted in many states worldwide as part of a broader program of privatization and financialization."

"The costly and clandestine nature of these contracts has been denounced by activists, academics and MPs across the UK. In particular, concerns have been raised that PFI deals enable service contractors, construction firms and offshore companies to profit as Britain’s public hospitals and schools crumble under the weight of unsustainable debt."

https://www.rt.com/uk/334330-pfi-unsustainable-debt-profiteering/#.VtejHVqvb_w.facebook

Despite claiming it was against PFIs, the SNP Government has set up its own version – called the Scottish Futures Trust.

"This was meant to be a different way of doing things, but the trust are in charge of a £2.5billion Scottish Government PPP programme, one of the biggest of its type in Europe."

Read more at http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/pfi-scandal-union-chief-argues-1119979#vwjf7jCbQdft6OsG.99

No party has served the pubic interest.

See http://www.thenational.scot/news/pfi-timebomb-fear-in-falkirk-as-snp-eyes-council-win.9349