End PFI - Start a Scottish National Investment Bank and Scottish National Infrastructure Company
It began with our 2016 paper "Banking for the Common Good"
Our successful campaign for a Scottish National Investment Bank (SNIB), can help transform the Scottish economy.
The bank can deliver public investment, as part of a strategy to replace costly public-private partnerships.
Our report estimates that the Scottish Government would have saved a total of £26 billion if the projects financed through Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and Non-Profit Dividend (NPD) schemes had instead been financed by a SNIB.
The bank is set up with the purpose of lending to invest, not lending to speculate. It will invest to improve Scotland and it's economy, not to maximise shareholder profits. SNIB will be run with full financial rigour but would be driven by a different ethos: providing long-term, patient funding for projects that meet social and environmental, as well as economic, criteria.
In October 2016 we published a detailed blueprint for setting up a SNIB which you can read here.
The campaign has not been easy. The Scottish Government initially knocked us back without seriously considering the idea.
But we persevered and we took the idea to the grassroots whilst still working constructively with the experts and civil servants who would be charged with setting up and running the SNIB. Teams of our local activists successfully lobbied their local representatives and their party branches and over the subsequent months they built the case and generated the demand for this approach to investment in Scotland. This culminated with a vigorous debate at the SNP's 2017 Spring conference and the unanimous adoption of the SNIB as party policy. This was coupled and strengthened by the Labour party also adopting the policy at Scottish and UK level.
Building on the success of the SNIB campaign, in February 2017 we launched a campaign to create a Scottish National Infrastructure Company. The SNIC would work with the Scottish National Investment Bank to provide sustainably financed, locally procured infrastructure that would remain in public hands throughout. By focusing on sustainability and longevity rather than profit margins, the final constructions would save money in the long run. Finally, the Scottish National Infrastructure Company would act as a centre of excellence to provide training and guidance to enable companies involved in the supply chain to be able to provide the materials and skills required to successfully bid for public contracts. The Scottish National Infrastructure Company can leave a legacy of world-class public facilities for us and generations to come.
This policy was adopted unanimously by the SNP's Spring 2018 conference and will be considered as part of the Scottish Government's 2018-2020 Infrastructure Commission.
In the cases of both the SNIB and the SNIC, Common Weal remains a recognised key stakeholder and we continue to work constructively with the relevant teams to ensure that these campaigns achieve the best possible results.