25 April 2008
The Scottish Government has rejected use of the Private Finance Initiative scheme to build Scotland's biggest hospital and will fund it entirely with public money, it was announced this week.
Using traditional public funding methods to build the £842m New South Glasgow Hospitals complex marks a significant departure from the PFI route used for most public building programmes in recent years.
Announcing the decision at the Scottish Trades Union Congress conference in Inverness on April 22, First Minister Alex Salmond said: 'By funding the entire project through public finance we are ensuring it is deliverable, affordable, sustainable and represents best value for money for the taxpayer.'
The minority Scottish National Party government has already made clear its desire to replace the PFI with a Scottish Futures Trust, a non-profit body that will finance public projects. However, the funding will include private, as well as public, money.
STUC general secretary Grahame Smith said the government's decision was a 'clear endorsement of public funding over PFI schemes'.
A Scottish Government spokesman said the public money option had been tested against a more costly non-profit-distribution model which worked in a similar way to PFI.
The decision comes at a time when a number of bodies have described the Scottish Futures Trust scheme as 'unworkable'.
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