The objectives of the Government's approach are to:
■ make the terms of debt finance and the process of securing debt finance transparent and open to Authority scrutiny;
■ avoid unnecessary duplication of effort by the finance community for those projects that do not require early lender support in order to quantify the terms under which debt finance may be made available;
■ capture best value in the terms of finance - whilst recognising that lowest cost is not the sole determinant of value and that the profit element in senior debt finance is a small component of the overall cost of the service; and
■ ensure that lenders to PFI projects are selected using open competition with appropriate selection criteria and also that the principles of best practice are shared between projects through Authority oversight and guidance.