37. PFI has never been a successful policy, but has escaped the critical attention it deserves, through the superficial appeal of the notion of a partnership between public and private sectors, that fits so well with the political consensus that the private sector can deliver public services most efficiently.
38. The credit crisis has changed all that. As one of PFI's foundations, bank credit, begins to look increasingly shaky, a light is thrown on the wastefulness and inefficiency of the whole initiative and the tide of opinion is turning against it.
39. The smart use of conventional procurement, in the hands of a more savvy public sector, would be one step in the transformation of public services, ensuring they were run by the public sector for the benefit of the public, rather than for private profit. PFI has been a long and wasteful experiment, and it is time to bring it to a close. We should look forward, instead, to a more efficient, more flexible and ultimately more "value for money"' way of building roads, schools and hospitals, that we as a public need.
October 2009