Jacqui Wise , 2025-07-11 15:21:00
Parliament’s spending watchdog has warned that badly managed private finance contracts could result in poor quality assets, including hospitals, being handed back to the public sector.1
The Public Accounts Committee’s report into the use of private finance initiatives (PFI) for infrastructure came as the government has identified infrastructure investment, delivered in partnership with the private sector, as critical to its central mission of growing the economy.
The MPs’ report criticised the lack of a credible pipeline for future projects and a lack of data on the past performance of projects, which it said puts the government’s ambitions at risk.
Of the 665 ongoing PFI contracts, half—covering hospitals, schools, and transport—are set to expire in the next decade. Public bodies are to pay £136bn in charges up until 2052-53, and the MPs warned that there must …