- Conference
- 2006 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 28 February 2006
- Decision
- Carried
UNISON has taken the lead in producing excellent evidence-based analysis of the fundamental damage that the private finance initiative (PFI) does to public service delivery and public service workers. It has also demonstrated that the sums do not add up and that this is not value for money.
Now the chickens are coming home to roost. Government has cold feet on health PFI schemes in the National Health Service in England. In Northern Ireland education schemes are continually being withdrawn because of the need to plan a system with falling school rolls and without 30-year PFI debts. There are major PFI infrastructure projects in the pipeline in Scotland but subject to devolved protocols and political responsibility. Notably the Welsh Assembly has closed its PFI unit. The International Accounting Standards bodies are now saying that PFI funding should be on the balance sheet after all. This lays bare the pretence by government and the Treasury that PFI is the only way to improve public services and infrastructure.
Conference calls on the National Executive Council to build on the excellent campaigning and research to date, to co-ordinate and integrate opposition across central and devolved administrations to end this approach which is so damaging to current and future generations.