Private Finance School 'Rip Offs' Denounced

12.13.08pm GMT Mon 4th Feb 2008

Vincent Cable, MP, denounced as a "rip off" the charges being made by private contractors under local PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects. Several primary schools were built or rebuilt on a PFI basis (St James; Trafalgar' St Mary's Twickenham among others).

One local primary school (St James) was quoted £30,000 per annum for the cost of connecting 15 laptops (already bought) to the internet and maintaining them; and it has already had to pay £7,000 out of a £70,000 contract for a "risk assessment study" and looking at paperwork on a small project for a school pond.

Vincent Cable said that: "there have been endless frustrations and delays in completing work on Trafalgar School after the PFI contractor - Jarvis - went bust. Now we have outrageous prices being quoted for tiny maintenance jobs. The same problems have surfaced on other PFI projects - like the West Middlesex hospital: the private PFI people are good at getting buildings built more or less on time and on budget, but there can be a nasty financial sting in the tail. I have written o the schools minister, Ed Balls, asking him to set firm guidelines for PFI providers to deal with issues of this kind.