Jo Armstrong
The Fraser of Allander Institute profile of Jo Armstrong states:
'After almost 20 years working as a business economist, holding senior posts in the UK's financial and government sectors, Jo is now operating as an independent consultant. She was a Policy Adviser to the First Minister of the Scottish Parliament providing both financial as well as economic advice. Whilst an employee of the Royal Bank of Scotland plc, she established two new analytical units. The Business Economics Unit provides microeconomic analysis in support of bank lending and the Project Finance Analysis Unit is responsible for undertaking cashflow and risk analysis in support of major project finance deals world-wide. Jo was project manager to the Allander Series team and was one of the contributors to the accompanying book'[1][2].
As illustrated succinctly in her profile Jo Armstrong is well connected in political, financial and academic circles. Despite her being an advisor to the Labour First Minister, she recently advocated the Privatisation of Scottish Water in book co-published by the Fraser of Allander Institute and the Scottish Council Foundation. The central assertion of her argument was that as the Barnett consquentials system of calculating the block grant of funding from the UK government to the Scottish Executive did not include Scottish Water it meant that the Executive could not continue to fund Scottish Water over the long term. This was because at some point the block grant would decrease and if the Executive was to continue giving loans to Scottish Water the money would have to come out of other budgets like health and education [3].
Jo Armstrong has also involved herself in other areas of concern to the Scottish people. For instance she professes that the area of Public Private Partnerships (PPP'S) is one that she is an authority on. She certainly seems to be a proponent of them despite evidence piling up that they are a bad deal for the people of Scotland.
She says,
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