1.1 Over the last fifteen years, private finance has become the predominant method by which public authorities procure infrastructure in many sectors. It has been used particularly where there is the need for a significant capital outlay followed by ongoing services, for example for hospitals, schools and roads.
1.2 In our experience, departments identify a range of potential benefits for PFI in their business cases but there are also potential disadvantages in using private finance (see Figure 1).