Doing our bit

Regarding your report "MSP slams futures trust cover up" (21 January), the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT)

is committed to being open and transparent in all its dealings. However, in managing procurements, care has to be taken with confidential commercial issues.

We have engaged with MSPs, particularly those with the finance portfolio in the main parties, to explain our activities and to help develop an improved understanding of the benefits and value for money that can be brought to public infrastructure procurement by a commercially focused task force.

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Our discussions outlined the work SFT is doing to lead and drive forward the 1.25 billion schools investment programme; lead and accelerate the 1bn hub community partnership programme; support, at the behest of local authorities, 300 million of waste man-agement projects to deal with more than a quarter of Scotland's residual waste; develop financing for the 300m Borders Rail project; carry out commercial reviews of Borders Rail and the 1.7bn Forth crossing; and evaluate US-style tax incremental financing models for suitability to fund major regeneration programmes in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Ravenscraig.

SFT's corporate plan also sets out our undertaking to deliver an initial 7 of benefits for every 1 spent on the organisation.

It is surprising, having met Jeremy Purvis MSP in December, that one month later he is claiming SFT is doing nothing. It may be an inconvenient truth for SFT's critics that the value of projects SFT is involved in has doubled to 5.5bn in seven months and that it is already delivering benefits and savings.

BARRY WHITE

Chief executive

Scottish Futures Trust