and many of its adherents are just as ideologically motivated as any Marxist.
The government can borrow money on the international money markets at a far lower rate than any company. You only have to look at the differentials in the yields between gilts and corporate bonds to see that HMG is far more credit worthy than most of its PFI contractors. The problem is that these government borrowings are reflected in the PSBR whilst most of the PFI deals are not. The Treasury compounds the problem by its insistence on treating capital investment in the same way as current expenditure. It is a bit like saying that money spent putting a new roof on your house is no better invested that that used buying rounds of drinks for your mates down the pub.
Anyone who has been anywhere near any of these market testing exercises will confirm that the exercise is always rigged. The incumbent public sector management are either forbidden to bid or are placed at a severe handicap by the terms of the tenders. The result has been a host of horrendous contacts the worst of which probably involved the sale of the whole of the Inland Revenue estate to Mapeley , a company that appears dedicated to avoiding all UK taxes. It is impossible to determine the true cost of many of these deals as they are nearly all bounded by commercial confidentiality clauses. As a result the private sector gets its hands on the taxpayers money without any chance for democratic accountability. In truth no one really know the full long term cost of these off balance sheet contracts but some analysts estimate that could escalate alarmingly. Unlike conventional government expenditure the opportunities for cancelling projects or reducing liabilties is severely restricted by the terms of the contracts. Therefore, any deals signed now by Blairs administration will be binding on future governments for decades to come. It is going to make radical reform of public administration and the rectification of abuses very difficult.
http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/articles/standard/june17,04.shtmlhttp://www.zyen.com/Knowledge/Articles/pfi_&_ppp.htm