The buy-now-pay-later PFI approach delivered necessary new buildings, but what happens when the debts have to be repaid, asks Dr Bernard Trafford

One benefit of being long in the tooth as a head is the ability to say, “I told you so”.

Mostly I avoid the temptation: but I wish I could speak to the politicians whose messianic ventures of 20 years ago have created current disaster.No schadenfreude, though: it’s not the politicians who suffer from historically poor decisions, but people like (right now) the school children of Edinburgh.

Earlier this month, 7,000 Edinburgh school children were unable to return to 17 schools for the new term because their school buildings were not deemed safe. These aren’t crumbling edifices from the 1940s, but new constructions created under the last Labour administration’s Public Private Partnership (PPP).

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