by Kate Ramsden
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Bob Revie
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Congress will press the Scottish Government to
use the Scotland Act to end PFI and to review existing
contracts. It also called on the government to award
grants for capital projects on the basis of a level
playing field, regardless of how they will be funded,
and to give health boards prudential borrowing powers.
UNISON Scotland's Bob Revie told congress of UNISON's
work on the true cost of PFI detailed in the report,
At What Cost? which shows that PFI contracts
could be costing around £2.1 billion more than conventional
funding of new schools and hospitals.
"UNISON Scotland's analysis of 35 PFI schemes
showed that public sector comparators were on average
6.4% cheaper. This means that for these 35 schemes
alone £720 million is being wasted - nearly enough
to pay the whole PFI bill for Wishaw General Hospital,"
said Bob. "On top of that an incredible £3.5
billion "insurance" policy is paid to
the private sector to cover the risk of things going
wrong with the contract."
On a brighter note, STUC General Secretary Grahame
Smith welcomed the announcement by the First Minister
Alex Salmond that the new Southern Hospital in Glasgow
will be entirely publicly funded at a cost of £842
million.
Grahame said, "This announcement by the First
Minister is a clear endorsement of the STUC's view
that PFI and other finance models for public sector
projects are flawed. We have consistently argued
for public funding for projects such as the Southern
Hospitals to provide value for money for Scotland.
We are delighted that the Government have now reached
the same conclusion. "
But he warned, "whilst welcoming this announcement
we hope, expect and will continue to campaign for
this form of funding for public sector projects
to become the norm."
Bob Revie expressed UNISON's disappointment that
despite their manifesto commitment to get rid of
PFI the SNP government had set up the Scottish Futures
Trust, which has been slammed as "PFI Lite!"
See http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/response/sftresponsemarch08.html
for a Scottish Futures Response from UNISON Scotland
Scotland's
public service union
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