Scotland ‘mis-sold PFI’

Scotland “mis-sold” PFI, claims controversial new Saltire Society pamphlet

Shoddy Schools and Fancy Finance: the Mis-selling of PFI, the latest pamphlet from independent charity the Saltire Society, has launched a scathing attack on the use of private finance to fund public buildings.

Published in the aftermath of the recent Edinburgh school buildings scandal, the pamphlet was launched earlier this week as part of a busy ongoing programme of events to mark the Saltire Society’s 80^th anniversary year. Its launch also coincides with 2016 being the Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design in Scotland.

Author Malcolm Fraser, an Edinburgh architect who retired from practice in 2015 describes the private finance model as “financial pestilence” and claims that it actively promotes “architectural shoddiness”.

Writing in the pamphlet Malcolm Fraser argues:

“I love the analogy of PPI – Payment Protection Insurance – where the banks are having to pay back monies they wrangled out of people by mis-selling a fancy-but-dodgy financial product. PFI/PPP was, definitively, mis-sold to us – let the banks and financial institutions pay us back!”

Commenting on the pamphlet launch, Saltire Society Executive Director Jim Tough said: “As an independent charity, we want to give a platform to the widest range of views and opinion on an array of topics pertaining to Scottish culture and society. I am sure that Malcolm’s pamphlet will provoke a lot of discussion and debate even if some readers may not necessarily agree with his point of view.”

Launched alongside Malcolm Fraser’s pamphlet at a special event taking place today at Southblock in Glasgow is a second pamphlet by fellow Scottish architect Neil Gillespie. Entitled Rebuilding Scotland, it draws inspiration from Robert Hurd and Alan Reiach’s seminal text Building Scotland, published by the Saltire Society in 1944, and takes stock of today’s architectural climate in Scotland more than 70 years on.

Commenting on his pamphlet, Neil Gillespie said: “Re-Building Scotland is a short reflective essay whose theme stems directly from the wee book Building Scotland, A Cautionary Guide by Alan Reiach and Robert Hurd published in 1944. The book called for an architectural culture that was based on openness and international ambition coupled to a sense of our past.

“In our current culture as expressed through our procurement of new schools, hospitals, courts and housing is there now any room for the architect or a discussion on what constitutes an architectural culture? The will or even understanding of what might constitute an architectural culture has faded immeasurably since 1944. Our recent retreat from the world around us makes an enlightened vision all the more remote.”

To celebrate the launch of the pamphlets and fellow architect Jude Barber’s recent ‘The Better Days’ exhibition, the three architects took part in a panel discussion on the themes that have emerged in their exploration of contemporary Scottish architecture at an event in Glasgow last week.