This past week has been a big win for people working to improve education in countries that have been plagued by Private-for-profit schools, such as Kenya, India, Ghana, Uganda and Liberia. The World Bank Group announced that its private sector division, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) would be reforming how they approach lending policy, their […]
At our report launch last month, one of our key speakers was Helen Mercer, whose expertise on Private Finance Initiative schemes made a huge contribution to our research. She talked to us about how we got into this mess and why this is a systemic problem caused by our governments, that can only be solved […]
We are so grateful that we were able to have Dexter Whitfield with us last month at the launch of our report, ‘Rethinking Private Financing’. The influence of his research can be seen all throughout it so it is an honour to be able to have one of the leading experts of this area come […]
The launch of our report Last month at the Scottish Parliament we launched our report ‘Rethinking Private Financing’, the culmination of work from Jubilee Scotland over the past year researching PPP & PFI schemes. You can download and read it here. The launch was hosted by Neil Findlay MSP, who spoke to us about how […]
In the midst of a windy day on the 29th of January 2016, the side of Oxgangs School in Edinburgh collapsed. A large section of the gable wall came crashing down with nine tonnes of bricks falling across the path below. An independent report concluded that it was “a matter of timing and luck” that […]
How much would you pay someone to put up a Christmas tree? We took to the streets of Edinburgh this week to ask people this to demonstrate the disproportionate costs that come with Private Finance Initiatives. Under a complex and unfair PFI contract, Alistair Darling had to pay £900 for the UK Treasury’s Xmas tree. This […]
Lessons from a failed system Our schools are collapsing, hospitals are being failed and yet there’s more money being spent on them than ever, with nobody around to be held accountable. That’s the situation that our country has found itself in after years of contracts forged by Public Private Partnerships. Our infrastructure is costing taxpayers […]
This article is written by Emma Saunders for Jubilee Scotland. It is an introduction to her thesis ‘Harvesting Debt: Hub South-East Scotland, Austerity and Public Procurement’ which explores the topic further. Emma was studying MSc by Research in Human Geography at the University of Edinburgh and has since completed this. ————————————————————————————————————————————— On the 21st of November, two weeks […]
This article was written by Dr Scott Arthur. In 2006 Alex Salmond told Scotland that “PFI was a quick fix and a costly mistake”. If elected (he was), he was going to ensure “our public assets can be held in trust for the nation all without the unnecessary private profit that is part and parcel of […]