Robbie Dinwoodie: "It is still a pig in lipstick."

Alex Salmond has turned to one of Scotland's leading financiers, Sir Angus Grossart, to strike a better deal for the taxpayer in the building of public buildings such as schools and hospitals.

"At a stroke this levels the playing field," said a government aide. "Until now the public sector has been outgunned when it comes to negotiating finance for projects. With this, we have someone who changes all that."

The government's plans for a Scottish Futures Trust needed an eye-catching announcement to bring credibility for proposals that had managed to attract criticism from everyone from banks to unions.

While the essentials remain in place, with all the doubts about how they will actually find new money to bring about new projects, the appointment of Sir Angus served to silence many of the critics yesterday.

Finance Secretary John Swinney said: "The combination of his lifetime's experience and expertise in the private commercial world, and his lifetime's commitment and enthusiasm to work in Scotland's best interests guarantee Sir Angus's skills will be deployed to Scotland's benefit."

Labour asked why so little detail of a scheme which had been rubbished on all sides for months had changed.

Andy Kerr said: "The result of today's announcement is no new schools, healthcare facilities or major projects. It is PPP with a £17m quango on top."

Many in local government had been waiting for a detailed announcement that would allow them to start commissioning projects again. Instead, one senior local government source said: "We have no idea what the SFT is about. It is so light on detail as to be embarrassing. We are not ruling it out of hand nor saying it can't work; we just can't see how it will work."

What the Scottish Government cannot argue is that having committed to cut quangos it has created another one, which will cost upwards of £17m.

But ministers claim this will be worth paying if the new body can save an estimated £150m a year to plough into public projects and present a hard-nosed approach to deals with the private finance sector. That still does not answer whether it will secure the big figures, such as £35bn over the next decade.

Sir Angus will face his biggest challenge in trying to weld local authority and other public bodies into an agreement to create publicly-issued bonds to fund infrastructure projects.

Major players KPMG said: "The SFT will provide additional guidance on the funding of public projects and help to build skills in the public sector."

But there was a sting: "We welcome the fact that Not For Profit structures still have a key part to play going forward. However, what the Scottish economy needs now is new projects. NHS community facilities - the so-called hub projects - have stalled since the election."

Cosla vice-president councillor Rob Murray said: "Today's announcement leaves many questions unanswered because it is light on evidence and detail."