Strange claim from Tories' Osborne about Sweden's "Friskolor" (Schools)

In an article on Times Online the Conservative party's shadow chancellor on education, George Osborne says:

Sweden had introduced independent providers into the state education sector as it coped with its own financial crisis, he told the BBC. They were able to negotiate better contracts for computers, textbooks and land, forcing the state bureaucracy to reduce its costs, he claimed.

(my boldface)

I have never heard the argument that Sweden's friskolor (government funded independent schools) came about to save costs. On the contrary for some time I believed it could be argued that they increased costs, partly by getting more money per pupil in some cases, and partly by making the old schools' investments less utilised.

I suppose Osborne's claim can be read as the cost cutting being a long term side effect, and for the same quality that may well be true. But this was never an argument used in the Swedish debate.

Läs mer: Tories promise to break state monopoly on education - Times Online