The 544 PFIs (Private Finance Initiatives) agreed under Labour will cost every working family an average of nearly £15,000 by the time the deals run out in – wait for it – 2047/48, even though the original building costs stand at just over £3,000 per family.
The figures were revealed at the end of last year in an article in the Daily Telegraph, and are based on research by, of all people, the Conservative Party.
The PFI schemes involved private companies taking on the upfront capital costs of projects such as hospitals or motorways in return for substantial payments over long periods of time. So a nice little earner all round is foisted onto the national infrastructure re-development that combined prolonged, inflated subsidy of private companies with the burden of protracted debt repayments. Capitalism must take us for mugs.