Private Finance Initiative & Public Private Partnerships
Full paper Available from Institute of Sports and recreation Management http://www.isrm.co.uk/recreation/documents/REJul05LocaldeliveryWeb.pdf
Professor Neil Ravenscroft of the University of Brighton was commissioned by Sport England to look at "Sport and Local Delivery". He concluded that:
"...without substantial public funds to devote to provision, many local authorities will have to consider PFI and other funding routes if they wish to maintain their role as facilitators and enablers. Yet, this route carries significant dangers, in that the public sector may once again be locked into paying for large leisure centres that do little for the everyday fitness needs of ordinary people."
Professor Ravenscroft noted that:
 |
"access to local public facilities may be increasingly mediated by a commercial management sector driven by performance targets rather than genuinely social goals." |
|
" under new PFI and PPP arrangements in education, it is often the case that 'public' facilities are not available to the public at the very times that they are required" |
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The late Paul Foot summed up PFI as follows:
"“In every area where it has been adopted
it has cost more, and will go on costing more. The PFI hysteria in the Labour
Government led to an enormous transfer of power in Britain: from public, elected
authorities to private, unelected corporations.”
See Private Eye Issue 1135 for more critical
reviews of PFI.