Sir Angus Grossart has been appointed chairman of the newly-established Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) company.

SFT, which is being established as a limited company, will develop the expertise and investment models for a range of public infrastructure projects including new schools, hospitals and transport projects for Scotland at better value to the public purse. This will include the Non Profit Distributing (NPD) model, designed to reduce financing costs and deliver greater impact from investment.

Sir Angus will now spearhead the development of SFT as an operational body. Finance Secretary, John Swinney set out the original project focus of SFT would be on securing public service hub developments and taking forward a new schools investment programme.

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Mr Swinney said: "The establishment of the SFT, and the appointment of Sir Angus as chairman is a significant step forward for Scotland. SFT will bring together a wide range of partners, expertise and resources to provide the high quality schools, hospitals and transport infrastructure that Scotland needs, in a far more cost effective way than PFI has done in the past.

"Sir Angus has the experience and expertise needed to spearhead this new and innovative approach, which will release up to £150m each year for investment in Scotland's vital public infrastructure.

"We have an infrastructure investment programme of some £35bn in Scotland over the next 10 years, and SFT will play a key role in delivering the infrastructure vital to this Government's purpose of increasing sustainable economic growth."

(GK/JM)