Time to consign finance initiatives to the dustbin

Professor Laurie Taylor, sociologist, Robert Cray, blues musician, Chuck D, rapper, Coolio, rapper/actor, Mark Wright, former footballer and manager, Sam Mendes, film and theatre director, David James, footballer,

Nwankwo Kanu, former footballer, ACCORDING to a Treasury estimate released in 2016 the overall cost of PFIs to the public purse was £209bn, or £4,119 for every adult in the UK.

Accounts published last week by the Department of Education show the minimum repayments on such contracts used to build schools has risen from £1.5bn to £1.8bn in 12 months.

We are all aware that a PFI contract for Calderdale hospital is playing a significant part in the discussions on the future of HRI.

PFIs are supposedly more efficient because the private sector is better at managing projects; it would bring in extra investment, fixed price contracts with financial penalties for late delivery, innovation and good design with higher quality and lower maintenance costs.

Balancing this are debt costs of 3 -4% above government debt, for example a £1bn debt incurred through PFI costs the UK taxpayer equivalent of £1.7bn of direct government debt. PFIs are inflexible and poor value for money given the length of the contracts.

The ultimate risk lies with the public sector by adding to public debt but creating private sector fortunes.

An extra layer of administration costs for both the public and private sectors is added. Finally governments use a PFI rather than government borrowing for a project because that’s the way it’s done.

Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow, argues that PFIs are leaving the government with crippling future costs. She says “we urgently need to rethink how we borrow as a country because these companies are the legal loan sharks of the public sector” and is going to campaign for an urgent consolidation of the loans.

Given the current low costs associated with government borrowing now could be an opportune time to consign these type of contracts to the dustbin of history. After all we do not want to leave our children and grandchildren with debts incurred by us do we? GOODNESS me but Mr Martinek gets angry.

His latest effort seems to show the customary clichéd generalities but this time with a dash more patriotic fervour than usual.

It is ironic that he fulminates against EU bullying while seemingly countenancing the bullying of poor little weak “remainers” such as I. Just what is the hurry? I mean the Brexiteers have already committed us to jumping off a cliff so why do we have to run to the edge with so much urgency?

Are they so desperate to ruin the country?

He should know and I think he does that the CBI are seeking an “interim” agreement.

The world that the “Brexiteers” inhabit surely recognises the wisdom of a balanced and reasonable approach rather than the “bull in the china shop approach” favoured by Messrs Fox, Davis and Johnson.

Mr Martinek’s call to arms is worrying. It doesn’t take courage to seek independence as he writes. Sometimes it needs a little patience to do it properly.

I’m sure he knows as many countries where independence led to rebellion, famine, social disruption and war. No doubt there was courage a plenty on display here.

I’m really trying to understand the roots of Mr Martinek’s anger. He must have had a bad olive or worse still a soggy Danish pastry!