SNP MSP pays tribute to Thatcher’s council house stock sell-off

A Nationalist MSP has given credit to former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during a debate on localism.

SNP Highlands and Islands MSP Jean Urquhart also questioned the advisory role of spending watchdog Audit Scotland.

Ms Urquhart said MSPs should “give the Tories credit” for Mrs Thatcher’s decision to ballot council tenants on housing stock transfer in the 1980s.

During the debate this morning, Ms Urquhart began by accusing the former Labour/Liberal Democrat Scottish Executive of “blackmailing” and holding “a gun” to local authorities to “enforce” the use of Public Private Initiatives (PPI) to fund building projects.

She said PPI was an “utter disaster” that has left councils with “an extraordinary debt”.

Labour MSP Richard Simpson said the SNP’s preferred model of capital investment, the Not For Profit Distributing (NPD) system, is just “a lovely new name” for PFI and the Public Private Partnership (PPP) funding methods.

He said: “NPD has been stated by Audit Scotland as being identical to PPP. So, the building programme at the Scottish Futures Trust is going to be the same. Audit Scotland has said that.”

Ms Urquhart responded: “Well, I’m sorry but in fact Audit Scotland told you that the PPI programme was acceptable.

“I mean, maybe we need to look, you know, where we’re taking some of the advice (from) here.

“And the difference is not for profit. I’m sorry but it’s not just a term. I won’t accept that at all.

“If you see a graph of the repayments of a school built under a PPI programme, and what we are now recommending, there is an enormous difference.”

An Audit Scotland briefing from January 2011 said “NPD is a form of PPP” where a private-sector provider pays the up-front construction and on-going maintenance costs.

However, it said a limit is imposed on profits and any surplus profit is re-invested in the public sector.