By John Caine

The Chancellor is talking about a £50m investment in infrastructure to help stimulate growth in the UK economy.

The Chancellor is now looking at PFI as a source of finance for this proposed programme of infrastructure projects.  But in the light of criticism of the “old” PFI way of doing things which were not considered good value for the tax payer the Government are looking at a “new” better way to deliver PFI funding at better value to the taxpayer.

Is this the same Government that said PFI was discredited in the form it was undertaken by the last Government?

Curtins were involved in the first PFI Prison in the UK at Fazakerley and subsequently with further PFI Prison and a large number of school projects so we have a keen interest in the PFI procurement route.

They say that the Canadians “do” PFI better and we need to learn from them how they have improved a procurement route created in the UK.

The Government needs PFI as it has no spare cash to invest in infrastructure.  The Government needs infrastructure investment desperately to assist growth in the UK economy.

We at Curtins want PFI because it represents work which is mainly on larger projects so we are keen to see it come back into our industry but, in the interests of the wider community the “new” PFI needs to represent value for money for it to be a sustainable procurement route for Government infrastructure costs.