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PFI deals 'costing taxpayers billions'
Financing projects such as hospitals privately costs taxpayers billions of pounds more than public sector alternatives, parliament's spending watchdog says.
The NAO report, which was written before the collapse of Carillion, found 716 public projects were active under PFI and its successor PF2, with annual costs amounting to £10.3bn in 2016/17.
PFI projects will cost the taxpayer a further £199bn by the 2040s, it said.
PFI use proliferated under Tony Blair's Labour government, but PFIs fell out of favour after the 2008 financial crisis, as the cost of private finance increased and as questions were raised over their efficacy.
t also said Treasury Committee analysis from 2011 estimated the cost of a privately financed hospital was 70% higher than a comparative project in the public sector.The watchdog highlighted the increased cost of borrowing which it said was 2% to 3.75% higher for PFIs compared to state borrowing.
"Paying off a debt of £100m over 30 years with interest of 2% costs £34m in interest. At 4% this more than doubles to £73m."
Shackled' to PFI
"I am concerned that Treasury has re-launched PFI under new branding, without doing anything about most of its underlying problems," she said.
"We need more investment in our schools and hospitals but if we get the contracts wrong, taxpayers pay the price."
But she said many local bodies were now "shackled to inflexible PFI contracts that are exorbitantly expensive to change."
The GMB union said it showed PFI to be "a catastrophic waste of taxpayers' money" and that it should mean "the game is up for PFI".
originally posted by: johnb
The problem i dont really think is underfunding either its the big pharma massively overcharging supply costs as well as every other link in the supply chain. The huge management govt beaurocracy running things swallows so much cash.
originally posted by: johnb
Hi all you fellow brits a thought before i/we get started.
WHy dont we make it unofficial UK policy to header all our threads starting - UK Thread (as i have) might even mean we eventually get a dedicated forum but if not at least we can see the 'UK' threads.
So the NHS:
I don't remember there being issues getting an appointment for a doctor or dentist going back 10-20 years or more. However nowadays you can't even find a NHS dentist in many parts of the country.
Last time i wanted a doctors appointment i had to wait 5 weeks, phoned this morning when surgery opened and managed to book an appointment for the 17th July - again just over 5 weeks.
Waiting times seem to be increasing all the time, queues of ambulances outside A&E.
The Tories have done most of the damage over the years but Labour haven't been much better and I think we are seeing the last days/years of our NHS before it is fully privatised. (Still i'm sure they'll reduce NI/Tax cont's once they have lmao)
These are just my latest personal interactions with the NHS, so was wondering if things are similar in other parts of the UK?
Your problems not with your health care service its with immigration for overpopulating the system.