Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) is a government-owned company is exaimined in the context of renewed interest in private financing of public services.
Successive opinion polls show that the public wants essential public services to be nationalised, not handed over to private companies to make ripoff profits. The hard lessons of the past should not have to be relearned. We already know that taxpayers and consumers will pay the price of private finance. The way forward is public investment, leveraging the government and local authorities’ ability to secure low-cost financing. This includes expanding the Scottish Government’s borrowing powers. International evidence shows that each 1% of GDP in public investment raises output by roughly 1.5% over a few years. The combination of higher GDP and increased tax receipts should make this policy at least neutral with respect to the debt-to-GDP ratio