Last week we ran an article questioning the statement made by Cllr Edward Giles at the Cabinet meeting where he claimed that the, “estimated benefit (of the Highways PFI) to the Island economy is well over £1bn”.
As we know, the expected PFI payment from the Government has been reduced from £364m to £260m since he made that statement, but it was the, ‘benefit to the Island economy,’ that we were interested in, rather than the ‘investment in the highways’ as clearly delineated by Jay Jayasundara in previous correspondence.
As we’d mentioned in the original article, VB wrote to Cllr Giles before publishing the article last week to ask for a clarification of how he arrived at this figure of ‘over £1bn value to the Island economy’.
Response received today
We appreciate that he’s been a trifle busy over the last week, but this morning, six days later, he was able to find time to reply. Here it is …
“The figure of £1 billion refers to the direct investment as a result of the 25 year PFI contract and was correct at the time I said it.
“Following the announcement of a revised grant figure last week, the direct investment has been revised to approximately £0.8 billion.
“The overall economic benefit to the Island will undoubtedly significantly exceed the £0.8 billion figure, even taking account of the fact that some of the benefit will be distributed off Island.”
Image: © IWC
