Monday 16 February 2009

Another day, another bailout

This time, it is the PFIs....

The government could have to bail out Private Finance Initiative projects to the tune of £4bn in the next 18 months, an industry spokesman has warned. Tim Pearson, of the PPP (public-private partnership) Forum, said the recession was limiting loans to firms on PFI projects like schools and hospitals.

There has been speculation that April's Budget may change PFI rules. PFI schemes involve private companies paying for construction and maintenance of public infrastructure projects. In return, the firms are then given payments from the state for between 20 and 30 years


Help me out here. A while back, I remember a documentary about PFIs. It was on C4. Does anyone else remember it. At the time, the program gave a very stark warning about these off-balance sheet operations.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

PFIs were how Brown hid public spending during the Blair years.

Blair, being a lawyer, never understood what Brown was up to.

Anonymous said...

@Roy: surely you mean "Blair, being rather a dim lawyer, ..."

Anonymous said...

Liam Halligan (who I think now writes for the telegraph?) did a Dispatches programme on PFI 2 or 3 years ago, it could be that you're thinking of Alice?