How profits have shut out the light on public architecture

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How profits have shut out the light on public architecture

Archiseek / UK / Scotland / News / 2007 / March 24

Malcolm Fraser

The procurement of school and hospital buildings by government – how the contracts for their design and construction are drawn up, and how the buildings are paid for – sounds like the driest of subjects, of interest only to professional bean counters. Most people would assume the massive investment in flagship health and education buildings is simply good news, right? But these buildings are, substantially, being procured through the government's PFI (Private Finance Initiative) and PPP (Public-Private Partnership) schemes. It is a measure of the sophistication of the electorate that a recent BBC poll, conducted in the run-up to the Scottish elections on 3 May, put the need to “ensure that all state schools and hospitals are built and run by public bodies rather than private companies” at the top of a list of 25 policy issues.

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