NewsHound

£1.5 billion needed to sort out Labour’s PFI mess

By | Mon 6th February 2012 - 1:54 pm

The Guardian reports:

Seven hospital trusts struggling with crippling private finance initiative debts are to receive £1.5bn in emergency funding from the government to help them avoid cutting patient services to pay their bills.

The Department of Health is making the £1.5bn available – in grants, not loans – to the seven hospital trusts in England with some of the heaviest PFI debts through a “stability” fund. Trusts will be able to use the money to meet PFI repayments, rather than their usual budgets, as long as they meet four conditions set out by the department.

The move will help trusts such as South London Healthcare NHS trust, which is facing a PFI repayment in 2012-13 of £66.8m under the terms of a deal agreed in July 1998, in the early days of Tony Blair’s government. They will be able to access the £1.5bn over the next 25 years, until the PFI contracts end.

Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, said he had been forced to use taxpayers’ money because certain NHS organisations could no longer afford to honour PFI deals that had been “badly negotiated” by Labour ministers.

You can read the full story here.

* Newshound: bringing you the best Lib Dem commentary in print, on air or online.

Read more by or more about , or .
This entry was posted in News.
Advert

One Comment

  • Tony Dawson 6th Feb '12 - 8:39pm

    So that’s Labour selling the NHS down the river to help their friends the bankers?

    Plus ca change.

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • Rob Heale
    We must have more of an emphasis on HOUSING and HEALTH generally. The issue of Leasehold abolition, with the Government apparently prepared to wait 40 Years for...
  • Mick Taylor
    What a surprise, not...
  • Jason Connor
    The Greens, Lib Dems and Conservatives are all standing. They all see sense and believe in democratic choices....
  • Mick Taylor
    @Lawrence Cox. To read your comment one might want to believe that the Triple Lock has ensured pensioners have decent pensions. It hasn't and UK state pensions ...
  • Chloe
    A Blue Labour response recent events in Hampshire. Well worth a read. https://www.paulembery.com/p/for-the-race-obsessed-british-state...