The latest edition of Private Eye reports on the recent announcement which stated that Land Trillium were dropping out of the Metrix consortium. The Metrix consortium are lined up to deliver the PFI deal that will lead to the privatisation of defence training:
Land Securities was to convert a "super-hangar" at St Athan, South Wales, into a huge new defence academy for around £1bn, but it seems the credit crunch has put paid to it raising that kind of cash. Whether another property company - most of them struggling to raise money - steps forward looks uncertain. The problem with the private finance initiative is that although the profits are great, they come over a long period and not many firms are in the mood for splashing out and waiting for their cash. If the Ministry of Defence can't persuade another company in, the whole scheme could collapse.
Meanwhile the list of compromises on quality that will be made if the deal does go ahead lengthens by the week.
Tory MP for the Wrekin Mark Pritchard, whose constituency will lose out when aeronautical training moves from RAF Cosford to St Athan and who has described the scheme as "a privatisation too far", recently raised a host of concerns with the National Audit Office.
This latest Private Eye article on Defence Training (DTR) which was part of a 'Defence Special', can be viewed here along with their full report on recent Defence news.
In related news 'Wales on Line' reports on the £100m plus plan that is being considered, to build a new road to Cardiff International Airport:
It has been suggested that the road would be to serve the St Athan training academy.
Personally, I think it would be an outrage to spend such huge amounts of Welsh public money on feather- bedding the training academy project.
This is a scheme of the UK government and will be provided by a consortium of private companies. It will cost £12bn.
They will understandably want to make a profit but why should Welsh taxpayers subsidise private organisations?
The full article entitled 'Why Subsidise Private Profit' can be found here.
More information on DTR from a Shropshire perspective can be found here.
5 comments:
We must have bought our copies at the same time, Cherie. An interesting article indeed and a bit depressing.
And a very Merry Christmas to you as well... ahem.
James - I was a little behind the curve on this edition... I always find press articles about Defence depressing...
Mutley - I hope you have a good one :-)
I learned to fly a glider at St. Athan - we would be up there every weekend for a few months. Would pass time in the hangars looking at demo jet engines used for training Mechs and Techs. We also had a hangar full of gliders. Lovely.
Nicer days but even then Britain had an overblown view of itself. And still they persist.
Aileni - Sounds like you had fun with those gliders :-)
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