Taxpayer’s £1.3bn interest cost
A RECORD £1.3billion a year of taxpayers’ money is now being spent on interest payments to private firms for new hospitals, schools and roads.
The Scottish Government has been accused of ‘maxing out the nation’s credit card’ after the cost of ‘unitary charge’ payments jumped by £96million, or eight per cent, last year.
Global financial giants are cashing in due to the huge additional charges added to the borrowing which pays for the projects. It includes the toxic legacy of Labour’s ‘private finance initiative’, as well as the cost of the SNP’s muchcriticised non-profit distributing (NPD) model.
It comes amid recent concerns about the quality of work carried out in major public-private projects including the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People in Edinburgh,.
Jackie Baillie, Labour MSP for Dumbarton, said: ‘The scale of spending servicing the debt has risen sharply. The Scottish Government needs to make sure it doesn’t max out the nation’s credit card and leave it for future generations to pick up the bill.’
Scottish Government figures show that the amount spent on unitary charge payments increased by eight per cent from £1.202 billion in 2017/18 to £1.298billion last year.
Of the total, £1.027 billion was for PFI scheme payments, compared to £1.013 billion the previous year, while NPD payments increased from £189million in 2017/18 to £271million.
Scottish Conservative chief whip Maurice Golden said: ‘The burden of these deals on the taxpayer is becoming increasingly heavy, and simply cannot go on.’
Meanwhile, an Oxford University report which analysed the Government Expenditure and Revenue Scotland figures warned an independent Scotland ‘would quickly amass unsustainable levels of debt, and the cost of servicing it would require large cuts in public services’.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Despite the current challenging economic climate, the Scottish Government has maintained a strong record of fiscal discipline, balancing its budget every year since 2007.’
Comment – Page 16