Labour Ahead In Economy Poll -By 2% You Gov

chewmylegoff

BobQ wrote: »

Its curious that the Tories introduced the PFI approach and Labour vehemently opposed it. When they got into office they adopted it and the Tories increasingly criticised it, but when Osborne became Chancellor he continued to use it.

I guess they all saw it as a magic ointment.

Generali - do they still use it in Australia?

Personally I don't think there is actually anything wrong with the concept of PFI - the problem was in the execution. The government tends to apply pretty thin resources to contract negotiation (I have seen some pretty disastrous negotiation on property leases, for instance). Junior people with no experience get landed with huge responsibiltiy and inevitably get taken to the cleaners by the CEO sitting opposite them, and before they know it they've agreed to pay 15% interest in perpetuity and agreed an exclusive maintenance contract which specifies the provider can charge £500 to change a tap washer...

Optimist

BobQ wrote: »

Its curious that the Tories introduced the PFI approach and Labour vehemently opposed it. When they got into office they adopted it and the Tories increasingly criticised it, but when Osborne became Chancellor he continued to use it.

I guess they all saw it as a magic ointment.

Generali - do they still use it in Australia?

When PFI was originally introduced the terms were quite tight and the profit margins where not as generous thus the take up was quite limited.

When Gordon Brown came into office the terms were changed to be rather over generous and take up went through the roof.

Government could and indeed still can borrow at lower rates than were/are available through PFI but it didn't show on the books.

This lot came into office saying that they would get rid of PFI but they have obviously found it too tempting to keep it.

It is now PF2 and if I remember rightly such things as maintenance contracts are no longer included as standard and there will be less of a profit margin

This present lot have also renegotiated some of the old PFI contracts and have saved £2.5 billion.

That said PFI liabilities currently top £144 billion.

chucky

Harry_Boyle wrote: »

Still dodging questions. You're good at pulling things down but not so great at putting them up. It's easy to stand back and criticise things but a lot harder to actually roll up your sleeves and do something about them.

He's a hypocrite. He can never answer a question without irrelevant soundbites.