Alistair Darling On PFI

The Financial Times has a transcript of a lengthy interview with the Chancellor today. His ideas on PFI (which has bedeviled Walsgrave Hospital) and city academies stand out.

There is this long-standing idea that Gordon Brown will put right all the problems from the Blair era, whilst ignoring that PFI/PPP projects were Brown's brainchild.

Financial Times: "One question which arises from the Tory Conference, I guess, is the extent to which you’re still committed to using the private sector in the public services and whether the brakes have applied to health and education."

Darling: "No, I don’t think so. For us what matters is how it works. I don’t think there’s an ideological hang-up here at all ... having some of the private sector disciplines, in both health and education is hugely advantageous, and there’s no doubt that if you take the city academies, for examples, they made changes which actually make it a bit more flexible than it was, and similarly in the health service, or, you know, I mentioned Welfare to Work, you know, a few minutes ago, you know, we are pragmatic, you know. It’s not a matter of ideology for us ... The fact that the building is owned by somebody else and is repaired by somebody else, isn’t actually something that is of great concern to me."