07 September 2001
At a meeting on September 3, the London borough's Labour group voted by 18 to 11 to push forward with the £26m scheme to rebuild Haverstock School.
It will now send its outline business case (OBC) to the Department for Education and Skills for approval.
The decision comes a month after the council originally rejected the PFI. Insiders at the council claim that the scheme has split the Labour group with accusations that the leadership has chosen to ignore the demands of members to 'mindlessly pursue' the deal.
John Dickie, deputy leader of Camden, told Public Finance that the PFI had in fact never been rejected, it just had never been endorsed either. 'Nothing was agreed at that meeting,' he said. 'We have since done a good deal of work on the OBC. We have explained the implications for our mainstream capital programme if we don't use PFI.
'Nobody actually favoured PFI at this week's meeting but there are overwhelming practicalities for using it. The Labour group is united about pursuing it.'
But council insiders said there was still dissent within the group, with claims that the school could be rebuilt much more quickly and cheaply without PFI.
Opponents also claim that the OBC contains unnecessarily weighted figures, with an interest rate of 9.03% plus an additional risk factor of 14%. 'With these weightings the PFI assessment naturally appeared to be the cheaper option,' said a source.
The council expects the department to approve the scheme by November, although its scrutiny panel is also due to investigate the plan.
PFsep2001
