Major and Blair – the men responsible for Scotland’s seemingly endless PFI debt.
What!? £600m in one year ‘repaying private firms?’ Surely the headline should tell us who is to blame for this massive mistake?
Let’s look.
Paragraph 1? Nothing. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 – nothing.
Ah, there it is in paragraph 10. We’ll hear more of those parties now!
Well, no, that’s it. 22 paragraphs but no repeating of of ‘Conservative’ or ‘Labour.’
In total for all the PFI scheme building under the Conservative Government of John Major and the Labour Government of Tony Blair how much will Scotland have to pay before the debt is cleared?
Looking at the whole lifespan of these PFI deals:
- Scotland had already paid roughly £14.2 billion in unitary charges by 2022-23. https://www.parliament.scot/chamber-and-committees/official-report/search-what-was-said-in-parliament/meeting-of-parliament-20-02-2025?iob=138946&meeting=16263&utm_source=chatgpt.com
- The remaining PFI liability was estimated at about £13.9 billion from 2024-25 onwards. https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/foi-eir-release/2025/06/foi-202500455809/documents/foi-202500455809—information-released—annex/foi-202500455809—information-released—annex/govscot%3Adocument/FOI%2B202500455809%2B-%2BInformation%2Breleased%2B-%2BAnnex.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
That implies that the total amount paid for Scotland’s PFI contracts will end up at around £28 billion over their full lifetime, although the exact figure can change because many contracts are partly linked to inflation. https://www.parliament.scot/-/media/files/committees/finance-and-public-administration-committee/correspondence/2023/budget_dfmtoconvener_23feb23.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
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Talking-up Scotland 
Basically, our grandchildren will still be paying for the construction of buildings that need to be replaced before they are even paid off.
Some plan, london.
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Major and Blair , yes , but don’t forget the contribution of Brown ! The Chancellor for all of Blair’s tenure , then in the hot seat himself but did not admit the folly of such a scheme !
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