Oral Answers to Questions

Tony Baldry Excerpts

Tuesday 21st December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Dr Thérèse Coffey (Suffolk Coastal) (Con)]

5. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the private finance initiative.

[Tony Baldry (Banbury) (Con)]

13. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the private finance initiative.

[Joseph Johnson (Orpington) (Con)]

15. What recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the private finance initiative.

--- Later in debate ---

[Danny Alexander]

I am not sure that it would be appropriate for me at this stage to pick out individual examples. The important thing to say is that, in common with the work that we are doing to ensure that we get better value from our suppliers across Government and that those suppliers are making a contribution to reducing the deficit, we are working on examining the future costs of PFI, so that where we can we reduce those costs. That is very important for ensuring that we reduce the deficit effectively and have the maximum amount of money left for front-line services.

[Tony Baldry]

A reduction of just 0.05% in contractors’ fees could save some £500 million a year. What can we do to help the Chief Secretary and the Chancellor bring pressure to bear on equity holders and key industry PFI players to persuade them to cut voluntarily their annual charges for rentals and services?