Research shows ‘big four’ pocketed more than £300m since 2010 after selling BSF schools
Some of the nation’s biggest contractors have been singled out for criticism after research revealed they are making multi-million pound profits from selling on Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts.
Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Interserve and Kier benefited by a combined total of more than £300m over the past four years, with Balfour Beatty alone making a reported £188.9m.
Research conducted by The Independent found that companies were able to double their profits by selling on PFI projects, such as hospitals and schools, part way into their 25-year lifespans, and that stock-market filings and company documents showed Carillion had made £12.2m, Kier £20.7m and Interserve £90m.
The paper said Balfour Beatty had recently sold on - or “flipped” - the University Hospital of North Durham and seven schools in Knowsley, generating a gain of £51m.
It said that the schools funding represented a doubling of Balfour’s original £19m investment.
Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said the profits were scandalous and showed the public had been “ripped off”, but conceded that the last Labour government – of which she was a member – had made mistakes on PFI.
“I’m afraid we got it wrong,” she said.
“I was a supporter at the time but I have completely gone off the whole concept. We got seduced by PFI.”
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