A BILLION POUNDS IN £100 NOTES YESTERDAY
The legacy of Labour’s use of the Private Finance Initiative is estimated to cost the Scottish Government a total of £27.7 billion from 2010-11 financial year.
The figure was confirmed in a parliamentary answer from SNP Finance Secretary John Swinney. The SNP has also released figures on the annual repayments (as estimated in 2009) and the level of repayments to be made by local authorities over the next two years.
SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson has branded the £27.7 billion figure a “disgraceful legacy of Labour” with the repayments being made to banks and finance firms at the same time as both Labour and the Tories propose cuts to Scotland’s budget.
“This is the disgraceful £27.7 billion legacy that Labour has left Scotland. “While the SNP is working hard to put new money into building schools, hospitals, homes and delivering public services Labour’s love of debt sees council’s, the NHS and the Government being stripped of funds to make excessive repayments.
“While the SNP is building public services Labour built debts.
“As we face tighter budgets in coming years as a result of Labour’s mismanagement we will be repaying billions to banks and finance firms to meet Labour’s debt legacy. "All across Scotland's public sector it is not just Labour's cuts that are affecting public services but Labour's legacy as well. “PFI repayments are now approaching the same level as Scotland’s annual budget. Labour’s refusal to recognise the problems of PFI and the better deal for taxpayers being delivered by the SNP in Government leaves them in a ludicrous position.”
Whenever you have a Labour Government in power they always leave a mountain of debt after they go. We can only hope that the Tories in Westminster and the SNP in Holyrood can succeed in getting us back on an even keel.
7 comments:
The SNP were not very vociferous in their complaints when the skoolsnospitals were being put up by loan-shark companies on 30 year contracts , DL .
More SNP grievance-mongering , perhaps ?
Kudos were it's due , though . They are more subtle about it than the Gray man and his corruptocrats .
PS . Aren't school holidays great ?
PFI - the debt that doesn't appear on the books.
Nice one DL, this has been hidden for far too long.
Headson, the SNP have been shouting about it for ages. This is just the debt in Scotland BTW.
I meant exactly what I said , DL .
I'm nothing if not direct - being from Lanarkshire , and that .
Private Eye tore the whole PFI scam apart long before it got properly going . Anyone who wanted to be outraged should have done that then , 7 or 8 years ago . It wasn't a secret .
There was no political gain to be made by the SNP then , however , so they kept their mouths shut .
Now the public have realised that the Labour Tooth Fairy doesn't exist they have jumped on the band-wagon .
I note that all the PFI buildings in my area have only been put up in the last 2 or 3 years - 10 years after Princess Tony swept to power .
A deliberate strategy to leave a poisoned chalice , perhaps ? That's exactly what they've done with the carriers . Make a big song and dance about all the shiny new stuff Mandy and the girls have bought for us , then leave the Conservatives to deal with the expenditure/debt .
Oli, to be fair to the SNP they have been making noises about it for at least five years. Yes, I always thought that it was a Labour ploy to shout about how many nice new shiny Schools and Hospitals they had built and burden incoming Governments whether in England or here with the bill. A bit like the Skye Bridge. Complete piece of pish.
Wasn't the Skye Bridge originally funded by tolls when opened under a Conservative government ?
It was certain parties (plural) then in opposition who declared tolls to be in some way immoral and saddled the country with the debt .
Oli, sorry I think you're right. It was completely ridiculous though the money they anted to cross it. It is shorter than the Erskine bridge and it was something like £22 to cross. I bought a book of tickets when I was working there once and it was about £50 for five and that was the cheap way of doing it.
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