A CONTROVERSIAL private contract used to fund Carlisle's Cumberland Infirmary could be brought back into public ownership under a Labour government, the party has claimed.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell branded Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts "wasteful" at the Labour Party Conference in Brighton, and set out his plans to tackle them.

The controversial funding contracts were widely used to build hospitals, schools and other public sector buildings.

Locally they include the Cumberland Infirmary, Workington Hospital and Workington Police Station.

Carlisle's £67m hospital, which was opened by then Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2000, was the first in the country to be built using PFI funding.

It meant it was built by private companies who continue to own the building, and North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust must make hefty annual repayments, totalling £23m, in order to use it.

But these huge costs have since been widely blamed for contributing to financial problems in the local NHS.

The trust has recently played this down, saying they now get a Government subsidy to help with PFI costs. However this figure is only about £6m - equating to about a quarter of the annual payment.

Suzanne Kelsey, NHS activist and Carlisle Labour Party member, was at the party conference. She said action needs to be taken to ease the pressure on struggling health services.

She said: "PFI, launched by the Conservative government under John Major and continued by Labour when they inherited an impoverished NHS, was never the best of financial arrangement.

"With many independent think tanks and committees declaring the NHS is at breaking point, removing this financial burden is the only sensible option and I welcome John McDonnell’s announcement on this at the Labour Party conference. Patients not profits should always be the first consideration."

Mr McDonnell won loud applause from delegates when he announced plans to take the controversial contracts back in-house.

"The scandal of the Private Finance Initiative has resulted in huge long-term costs for taxpayers while providing enormous profits for some companies," he said.

The Conservatives were quick to denounce the plans as "unaffordable", but Labour said the policy would be "pretty self-funding" in the long term, as the state would no longer have to pay out huge sums each year.