A MASSIVE £4.8 billion of public money is being paid to multinational corporations to run water-works that are plagued with breakdowns and pollution, an investigation by the Sunday Herald has revealed.

Internal reports from Scottish Water lay bare for the first time the scandal of contracts signed under the private finance initiative (PFI) backed by Labour and Conservative governments.

Details of the problems are disclosed in hundreds of internal documents released by Scottish Water to an industry researcher at Strathclyde University, Tommy Kane, under freedom of information (FOI) laws. He said the revelations are “extraordinary”.

He told the Sunday Herald: “These documents provide damning evidence of the dangers of PFI and handing over operations and control of vital public services to private companies. They reveal a litany of operational concerns and failures at PFI sewage works.”