William Eichler 23 January 2025

Study reveals high costs of PFI contracts

Study reveals high costs of PFI contracts image
Image: Maks_lab / Shutterstock.com.

Payments to private companies for public assets have exceeded construction costs by over three times, new research into Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contracts has revealed.

A review of 1,000 financial accounts by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) found that £13.5bn is spent at the local level on PFI repayments, of which 31% pays for interest costs.

The NIESR also found that £1bn has been made in pre-tax profits by just a handful of companies, often registered in Guernsey and Jersey.

Max Mosley, a senior economist at NIESR, commented: ‘We are spending far more in PFI repayments than the value of the assets.’

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