ACADEMICS and campaigners have called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to drop “dangerous and damaging” NHS private finance plans ahead of the autumn Budget next week.

The government is considering new PFI-style deals to build “neighbourhood health centres” under plans to move care from hospitals into community settings.

In their 10-year NHS plan, ministers set out the possibility of relying on public-private partnerships (PPP) to fund the centres, fuelling concerns that taxpayers could be left footing the bill for high borrowing costs.

Campaigners gathered outside the Department of Health and Social Care yesterday in a protest organised by We Own It to demand a halt to the plans.

The anti-privatisation group has also co-ordinated a letter, signed by 50 academics, which calls on Ms Reeves to “abandon this dangerous and damaging proposal and fund public services through direct taxation or borrowing.”

Signed by figures such as Lord Sikka, the letter calls the arguments for private finance “bogus” and warns Ms Reeves that “using private capital in the NHS is no different from a family buying their home using a payday loan.”

Campaigners have warned about the dangers of risking a repeat of disastrous PFI (private finance initiative) schemes, in which private firms funded the building of hospitals, while high-interest repayments were made over the long term.

Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research found that for just £13 billion of investment, the NHS was landed with an £80bn bill.

We Own It warns that the scheme has already been repackaged as PF2, LIFT, Scottish NPD and now the Welsh Mutual Investment Model.

Lead campaigner from the group Sophie Conquest said: “The cost of private finance in our NHS is literally sickening.

“Taxpayers’ money has been diverted away from patient care towards private profit for shareholders.

“Some trusts are having to choose repaying PFI debts over buying medicine for patients.

“Private finance has been repackaged time and time again.

“The only lesson we can learn from the disaster of PFI is to keep private finance — in all its forms — out of our NHS.”

A government spokesperson said: “We are putting record levels of investment into the NHS, with £29bn more day-to-day funding and the largest ever investment in buildings, equipment and infrastructure.

“All proposals are subject to robust value for money assessments to ensure taxpayers get the best possible return on investment.”