During the course of his Budget speech on 29 October 2018 the chancellor, Philip Hammond, said: “I have never signed off a PFI contract as chancellor and I can confirm today that I never will.” It might be nit-picking to point out that PFI as a procurement route was replaced by PF2 in 2012 so there is little chance that Hammond would ever sign a PFI contract, but the wider point is that he went on to say that the government has now abolished the use of PFI and PF2 for future projects. 

The government will not, however, take back control of existing PFI contracts but will instead allow these to run their course and establish a centre of excellence “to actively manage these contracts in taxpayers’ interests starting in the health sector”. This step was taken in the face of “compelling evidence” that the private finance initiative neither delivers value for the taxpayer nor genuinely transfers risk to the private sector.

“PFI would, it was felt, provide ‘value for money’. Notably, ‘value for money’ was never properly defined”

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