PFI what i have said for years
Author
Discussion

SplatSpeed

Original Poster:

7,491 posts

282 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
PFI's cost 70% more

this is a shocking indictment of nu labia

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14574059

but still they refer to the Tory chair!

Derek Smith

49,971 posts

279 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
I think Major started it and the coalition continues with it.


GeraldSmith

6,887 posts

248 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
I think Major started it and the coalition continues with it.
Yes 1992 was the start of it

B Huey

4,881 posts

230 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
GeraldSmith said:
Derek Smith said:
I think Major started it and the coalition continues with it.
Yes 1992 was the start of it
It's still all Labour's fault, obviously.

ringram

14,702 posts

279 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
Think of it as stimulus money.
Which we could do with now.
Back then, sure it was probably OTT, but its worth doing now IF the benefits are there.
More should be spent on infrastructure, roads, power transmission, power generation, storage etc.

Guybrush

4,364 posts

237 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
B Huey said:
It's still all Labour's fault, obviously.
Yes it is. Labour encouraged and willingly took part in its misuse.

SplatSpeed

Original Poster:

7,491 posts

282 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
Guybrush said:
B Huey said:
It's still all Labour's fault, obviously.
Yes it is. Labour encouraged and willingly took part in its misuse.
labour mismanaged it to the 70% level

Derek Smith

49,971 posts

279 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
GeraldSmith said:
Derek Smith said:
I think Major started it and the coalition continues with it.
Yes 1992 was the start of it
Not Thatcher then? Damn.

dxg

10,806 posts

291 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
I've been lecturing this point for years now, with the numbers to back it up. Glad people are finally waking up to the issue.

I would have been fine with it if we really did get the innovative design, willingness to take risks, and ability to manage those risks that we were promised, but we got the cheapest, lowest common denominator buildings with a design function completely divorced from the operation end of the deal, despite each scheme being under a single SPV banner.

Edited by dxg on Friday 19th August 08:38

DJRC

23,563 posts

267 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
So basically it can be a sound idea if managed properly?
But shock of shocks in Britain we have utterly failed to manage it properly.

If I wasnt more jaded and cynical I would be shocked.

Im afraid I cant heap the blame on Labour here. All these schemes have been under the eyes of Parliament, I dont recall many if any politicians making big fusses and deep analysis of the numbers over the years. I dont recall any politicians deciding to make it their job to keep these under their eyes and to be accountable.

GeraldSmith

6,887 posts

248 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
Actually I think quite a lot of people have been very sceptical about them for some time and been vocal about it, but there has been a lack of people listening.

The started under John Major, were very popular under Gordon Brown as Chancellor and PM and have continued under this Government. Unfortunately politicians like them because they let them spend money without it appearing either as spending or borrowing, crazy.

Derek Smith

49,971 posts

279 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
dxg said:
I've been lecturing this point for years now, with the numbers to back it up. Glad people are finally waking up to the issue.
I think you will find that the Eye has been following your lead.

Lots of people complained but there was little anyone can do about it. Vote for anothe party? Well there you have a problem as they all support it. Managed properly? But that would mean that those who put money into the vrious parties would get nothing in return. So no chance of that then.

Further, they can present the extra funding for, for instance, the police then hit them with a PFI package and get lots of the money back. The fact that his means the police actually gets less from the government than orignally is neither here nor there, unless, of course, you want the country policed better. So neither here nor there.

Further, the fact that the government cuts the fnding of the police by 20% might initally have worried those enjoying tremendous returns, or rather their wives in foreign climes enjoying tremendous returns, until they realise that their income won't be cut. Just the officers on the street.

Read the Eye an feel ashamed of our politicians. All of them.

DJRC

23,563 posts

267 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
Nothing changes, the Eye has been making fools out of our politicians since I first started reading it 20yrs ago.

Gerald, my idea of making a fuss about it and yours are very different. I would have liked to see a member of Parliament making it their job to audit and scrutinise them and be asking financial details every day in Parliament. Id be making damn sure the figures were deconstructed and in the public domain everyday and that company representatives were hauled up before Parliamenary committees everyday, just as I am accountable to my director every week.

AndrewW-G

11,968 posts

248 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
Derek Smith said:
GeraldSmith said:
Derek Smith said:
I think Major started it and the coalition continues with it.
Yes 1992 was the start of it
Not Thatcher then? Damn.
hehe No doubt we'll still get a host of ignorant wkers claiming it's all her fault

Timmy35

13,014 posts

229 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
SplatSpeed said:
Guybrush said:
B Huey said:
It's still all Labour's fault, obviously.
Yes it is. Labour encouraged and willingly took part in its misuse.
labour mismanaged it to the 70% level
yes

Like many things it's not the idea, it's what Labour did with it once they got hold of it. A little debt isn't such a bad thing, going on a massive debt fuelled spending spree is.

It's the difference between someone on £50,000 a year borrowing £150k for a house.....or £500k for a house. Exactly the same principle/idea, one fine the other utterly reckless.

derestrictor

18,764 posts

292 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
DJRC said:
...just as I am accountable to my director every week.
For what?

Mincing around Europe in a big shirt trying to get laid?




andymadmak

15,722 posts

301 months

Friday 19th August 2011
quotequote all
Is it not the case that the model for PFI works quite well for revenue generating capital expenditure such as toll roads and toll bridges and such like? I read that the Tories got the idea from the Australians and had used it in this way with some success.
It was Labour that miss-used the process by using it for non revenue generating capital projects such as new schools and hospitals, and then further compounded the error by completely screwing up the management and implementation of the scheme.

Or am I completely missguided in this?


SplatSpeed

Original Poster:

7,491 posts

282 months

Saturday 20th August 2011
quotequote all
Timmy35 said:
SplatSpeed said:
Guybrush said:
B Huey said:
It's still all Labour's fault, obviously.
Yes it is. Labour encouraged and willingly took part in its misuse.
labour mismanaged it to the 70% level
yes

Like many things it's not the idea, it's what Labour did with it once they got hold of it. A little debt isn't such a bad thing, going on a massive debt fuelled spending spree is.

It's the difference between someone on £50,000 a year borrowing £150k for a house.....or £500k for a house. Exactly the same principle/idea, one fine the other utterly reckless.
yes but with PFI you dont own the house at the end!

SplatSpeed

Original Poster:

7,491 posts

282 months

Saturday 20th August 2011
quotequote all
andymadmak said:
Is it not the case that the model for PFI works quite well for revenue generating capital expenditure such as toll roads and toll bridges and such like? I read that the Tories got the idea from the Australians and had used it in this way with some success.
It was Labour that miss-used the process by using it for non revenue generating capital projects such as new schools and hospitals, and then further compounded the error by completely screwing up the management and implementation of the scheme.

Or am I completely missguided in this?
exactly!

DonkeyApple

70,618 posts

200 months

Saturday 20th August 2011
quotequote all
An interesting anecdote:

One of the big PFI contractors has developed a brilliantly simple and cheap system to slash the cost of public buildings like schools.

They have a whole modular system so that you spec out what facilities are required for the building and it tells you what modular units are required and how to fit them together on the land available to be most beneficial.

It genuinely seems brilliant. It slashes building time, removes architects fees, slashes material costs etc etc.

There is one problem: because this would mean that public buildings would all look similar and stand out it is wrong so we have to keep paying over the odds to have everything designed from scratch using exotic materials etc.

If we want to slash public spending this is precicely how we need to start.