High school cost triples to £66m
TAXPAYERS will end up paying more than £66m for a new comprehensive school which cost £20m to build, it has been revealed.
Research done by the Welsh Conservatives has revealed Maesteg School, which was built in 2008, will cost £46m in extra charges by the time the last payment is made under the 25-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) deal struck by Bridgend County Borough Council.
It’s led to criticism from regional AM Suzy Davies who blamed the former Labour government for “mortgaging” future local authority spending in the borough.
But the council’s cabinet member for regeneration has hit back, claiming that with no capital money or borrowing available to them at the time, it was the only way Maesteg could get the new school it needed.
Councillor Charles Smith said: “Suzy Davies has forgotten that PFI schemes were first introduced in the UK under John Major’s Conservative government.
“I’m glad she acknowledges that before it opened its doors in 2008 there was a desperate need for a new comprehensive school in Maesteg and also that the council maximised the opportunity by refurbishing the existing premises to create the county borough’s first Welsh-medium comprehensive.”
Mrs Davies said the agreement sees Bridgend taxpayers having to fork out large annual repayments.
She said: “Bridgend residents are well and truly lumbered until 2033 when this deal finally ends.
“There may be a case for investigating how some local authorities in Wales negotiated these deals. Obviously some were better at it than others.
“Councils were encouraged to use PFI by the Labour government which wanted to keep billions of pounds of capital spending off the public accounts and PFI schemes went in under the radar.
“I understand that there was a need in Maesteg for a new school which also resulted in the clearance of a large area of industrial dereliction on the site of the old Maesteg (coal) washery.
“Having this new school also freed up the former senior school site at Llangynwyd so that a new Welsh medium comprehensive for the borough could be set up. So there were some pluses.
“However, council taxpayers are having to pay back these inflated sums. In Wales as a whole local authorities are indebted to the tune of £1.6bn. My main concern is the way in which many of these deals were handled and with the fact that they mortgage future spending – in Bridgend’s case until 2033.”
Coun Smith added: “There was no other way available at that time to deliver any of this for the area – no capital funding stream, and no ability to borrow the money – so I would be interested in hearing what realistic, costed alternatives she might have put forward.
“The Welsh Government established the 21st Century Schools funding initiative in 2011 and we have been using this to positive effect ever since. But prior to this and as far as providing the people of Maesteg with a state-of-the-art new school was concerned, I’m afraid that it was a choice of PFI or nothing.”
Bridgend council also said Welsh Government is covering 86% of the PFI cost while the authority is spending approximately £6.6m over a 25-year period. The contract value includes overheads such as building maintenance, administration costs, insurance, unexpected capital costs and more, all of which the council would have otherwise had to fund from its own resources.