'Wales should get a windfall if the Government has to provide extra funding to English PFI projects, a Plaid AM has claimed.'
'Plaid Cymru AM Leanne Wood yesterday said private finance initiatives had “clearly failed”. Her criticism of the use of private sector finance comes as speculation mounts that the Westminster Government may have to provide £4bn in loans to rescue contractors which can no longer raise money from the markets.The Treasury yesterday confirmed it will be coming forward with a set of proposals on PFI in the coming days.'
'The Labour-Plaid Cymru coalition pact commits the Assembly Government to eliminating the use of private hospitals by the NHS by 2011 and use of PFIs by the health service is banned.Ms Wood said: “One good thing coming out of Wales’ very limited use of PFI in the past is that we will not have chunks of our budget tied to PFI repayments over the coming decades.” '
'Conservative AM David Melding said: “PFI...remains a very robust option for capital projects but it’s also a model much more likely to be popular during times of robust economic growth.”The present shortage of funds was not due to errors by the contractors, but due to actions by banks, he said.A Welsh Assembly Government spokesperson said: “We are in regular dialogue with the Treasury to ensure that the Welsh Assembly Government receives funding in accordance with the operation of the Barnett formula.” '
1 comment:
Nationalising the risk- Privatising the profits.
It seems that is labour's peculiar version of socialism-
they'll never learn though Leanne- they say power corrupts, and nothing corrupts like access to Peter Mandelson's contacts. He's more a dizzy free marketeer now, after his days on the EU commission, than he ever has been. not even global meltdown can bash his, or brown's, faith in free market models, of which PFI is is such a sad example.
plaidcasnewydd.blogspot.com
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