No Profit in PFI changes warning

Carillion warns Scotland over PFI changes

Construction giant Carillion has warned Scotland against pressing ahead with plans to replace the traditional private finance initiative with a non-profit making model.

Robin Herzberg, managing director of Carillion’s private finance division, told the construction press that the new approach “doesn’t sound very attractive”.

The proposals as they stand would not interest a profit-making firm like Carillion, he said.

Longer term, Scotland’s ruling Scottish Nationalist Party wants to ditch PFI in favour of the Scottish Futures Trust, a non-profit making company that would funnel private investment into state projects.

From: Public Private Finance

Government slammed on schools

Latest view on PPP schools...

The Scottish Government's school building plans have come under fire, with Labour branding their absence of clear spending plans an "outrage".
The Tories claimed that the SNP administration's plans to replace PPP with a Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) have so far resulted in "confusion and uncertainty".

MSPs were debating the issue in Parliament after the Nationalists had pledged to match existing school building programmes "brick for brick" going into last year's election.

But Labour's shadow education secretary Rhona Brankin, herself a former teacher, said that the party had built or refurbished 328 schools during its eight years in power with the Liberal Democrats.

She said: "We have heard nothing, not one brass farthing has the SNP said they are going to spend on school building programmes and that's frankly an outrage."

Source: Midlothian Advertiser