The private finance initiative (PFI) is a way of creating "public–private partnerships" (PPPs) by funding public infrastructure projects with private capital. Developed initially by the Australian and United Kingdom governments, PFI and its variants have now been adopted in many countries as part of the wider neoliberal programme of privatisation and financialisation driven by an increased need for accountability and efficiency for public spending. It has been used extensively in Australia, the United Kingdom and Spain.
PFI has been controversial in the UK; the National Audit Office felt that it provided good value for money overall. However more recently the Parliamentary Treasury Select Committee found that ""PFI should be brought on balance sheet. The Treasury should remove any perverse incentives unrelated to value for money by ensuring that PFI is not used to circumvent departmental budget limits. It should also ask the OBR to include PFI liabilities in future assessments of the fiscal rules".
Read more about Private Finance Initiative: Overview, Development of PFI in Spain, Development of PFI in Other Countries
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