Government ownership of banks should lead to better terms for PFI contracts, according to an SNP MSP.
Government ownership of banks should lead to better terms for PFI contracts, according to an SNP MSP.
Jamie Hepburn, MSP for Central Scotland, has called on the Treasury to say whether the recapitalisation of HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland will lead to improved repayment terms.
Mr Hepburn has asked Alistair Darling whether terms can be renegotiated to ease the burden on the public purse. In a letter to the Chancellor, he wrote: "I note with great concern the scale of combined UK PFI/PPP debts. There have been reports that this cost will reach £216 billion between now and 2032. I therefore urge that a concerted effort is made to reduce the burden on the taxpayer by negotiating improved terms."
He added: "We will see public money taken from front-line services to pay PFI debts that will then be used either to buy the banks back out of public ownership or taken back by the Treasury in dividends.
"We are already seeing plans to cut public spending to help meet the cost of bailing out the banks and to cut the UK's national debt - debts that do not include the high repayments owed for PFI deals. Surely the banks could put something back by cutting the public sector's PFI payments."
