Following claims made in the Rutherglen Reformer by MSP James Kelly that the Scottish Futures Trust should be axed, Bob Doris MSP has written to South Lanarkshire Council to seek assurances that a local primary school project will be protected. Mr Kelly said that the SNP Government should extend the recent boiler scrappage scheme, despite the SNP having committed in full a £2 million payment from the Treasury into the scheme and despite Mr Kelly having voted against it in Parliament. Mr Kelly further claimed that extra funds could be found by axing the Scottish Futures Trust, the Scottish Government’s new body for funding large scale public building projects, which he said benefits merchant bankers.

Mr Doris responded:

“Mr Kelly always seems to want a lot of money that simply isn’t there but these latest claims are beyond belief. Firstly, the Scottish Futures Trust was set up to save public money following Labour’s notoriously expensive PPP/PFI disaster. The funds for Labour’s PPP schools programme for South Lanarkshire were borrowed from Barclays Capital Finance at a total cost to the Scottish taxpayer of £1,184.7 million over 30 years. The actual capital value of the schools is only £318.9m. How can anyone claim that was value for money?

“Merchant bankers did very well for themselves under Labour, especially the tax exiled ones. I find the suggestion that  SFT is a wasteful alternative to be beyond all reason. Public services in Scotland will suffer for years to come because of the enormous sums of public money committed to Labour’s disastrous PPP/PFI  policy.

“The new Spittal primary school in Mr Kelly’s own constituency is being financed under SFT. South Lanarkshire Council will receive a total of £2.257m from the Scottish Government to cover 50% of the cost from 2011/12. Is James Kelly seriously suggesting that Spittal Primary be axed to fund more boilers?

“I have now written to South Lanarkshire Council Leader Eddie McAvoy to seek assurances over the Council’s commitment to the SFT funded Spittal Primary School. I know Mr McAvoy has chosen to work constructively with the SNP Government over the new school for Spittal and I am hopeful this will continue. Mr Kelly may well be out of step with his own councillors".

The Scottish Government’s ‘Building Better Schools’ strategy for the schools estate sets out targets agreed with local government body COSLA to ensure that no less than 90% of children in Scotland will be educated in good condition schools (condition A and B) with plans to lift the remaining children into better condition schools.

Mr Doris added:

“The sheer scale of underinvestment in the schools estate over so many years can’t be solved overnight. The best way to accelerate investment is to ensure that public funds intended for school building do just that and do not mostly get spent on credit card like repayments as under PFI. The seriousness of Labour’s complete inability to get a good deal for the taxpayer is starting to bite. It’s exactly this irresponsible attitude to borrowing that brought the UK economy to its knees in the first place and I fail to see why James Kelly thinks he can create a smokescreen by blaming others for Labour’s mess.”