Norman Lamb concerned about Norfolk schools PFI deal collapse

12.00.00am GMT Tue 30th Nov 2004

Norman Lamb has tabled an Early Day Motion to express concern at the collapse of the private finance initiative (PFI) deal involving schools across Norfolk.

"I have serious concerns about the amount of public money that has been wasted as a result of this collapse," said Mr Lamb. "37 schools with buildings in need of upgrading or even replacing have been left in the lurch with the collapse of this deal."

"This deal was several years in the planning, and included plans to reorganise the education system, enabling children across the county to start high school at 11 years old," Mr Lamb added today. "But those plans have now foundered as a result of the deal collapsing. The consequences for school-children in Norfolk are potentially very serious."

Norman Lamb's Early Day Motion 181, 'Private Finance Initiative Schools Project in Norfolk', welcomes the independent review investigating what exactly went wrong and calls on the Government to reassess the role of PFI in our public services. It has cross-bench support.

"The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants has recently published newly commissioned research which finds PFI can be an expensive way of financing and delivering public services," points out Mr Lamb.

"ACCA's report, published in October, emphasised that 'numerous IT PFI projects have failed. Several PFI/PPP projects have had to be bailed out, some have been scrapped and others have been the subject of widespread criticism' This is clearly an unsatisfactory situation."

"We must rigorously examine the success of existing PFI projects," urges Norman Lamb. "At the same time, the government must look for less expensive, more secure ways to finance, develop and improve public services."

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Early Day Motions (EDMs) can be found on the EDM database by following the link below. To find the EDM on PFI in Norfolk, search by number: '181'; or by name: 'Lamb'.

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Norman Lamb concerned about Norfolk schools PFI deal collapse

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