At Trentham Academy, a large secondary school in Stoke-on-Trent, the swimming pool is barricaded with danger signs, while the heating system has remained broken during recent mock exams.
“It was hard to concentrate,” student Esme says. “I couldn’t stop myself from shivering while I was trying to breathe and to calm myself down while I was trying to do the exam.”
This is one of 88 schools in the area that were maintained as part of a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, signed by the city council 25 years ago.
I am shocked and surprised that a for profit company went bankrupt just before their lucrative contract expired and all the work that they had skipped out on became due. What an interesting coincidence that the company also happens to be about as old as the contract and only serves that contract.
It’s so transparent.
Adding a profit extraction layer to public services has the effect of either adding cost or reducing service. It is very infrequent that the private sector gets the job done without both cutting services and adding cost, but if the politicians profit, they don’t care. Where else could they go work after their term in office?
Another Private Finance Initiative project scandal coming to fruition.
PFI companies like Innisfree usually hire sharper lawyers and accountants than councils, so these projects tend to become scandals where government is fleeced. Here, Innisfree is accused of taking dividends early then letting the PFI company collapse at the end of its term with work not finished and the council having no tools to make the PFI company’s owner save it.
The bigger scandal is some politicians who ignore or deny this danger and still want more PFI and PPP with minimal safeguards.
Name and shame the directors. Let’s see I they like being in the cold.
