The House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts concluded that the public interest was not affected if "…an efficient equity market in which investor returns can be left to find their own level" (Public Accounts Committee, 2007).
The NAO identified two risks with the consolidation of equity in the secondary market: "Firstly, it may provide the consolidated owners of shares with disproportionate market power, and particular asymmetry of power over small public authorities tendering and managing single PFI contracts." Secondly, consolidated owners could "…mean more challenge to the public authority's contract management. For instance, a consolidated owner might be in a better position to challenge a claim or to demand extra payment where the contract specification is unclear" (House of Lords, 2010). They had no evidence that either were happening.
HM Treasury took a more strident view in its statement included in the NAO's 2012 equity report. It believed that improving value for money from equity investment "…needs to take into account a wider range of issues that together contribute to the overall economics of a transaction, rather than merely looking at equity returns on their own…. Investors' pricing of equity is inextricably linked to other terms of a project, which together determine the overall commercial opportunities and risks of the transaction. Prices are agreed with the private sector in response to a competition - in each case where the sponsors of bids are able to bid the lowest equity returns that would enable then to offer the most competitive market pricing at the time for the services required and the risks transferred" (NAO, 2012).
In other words, competition and market forces will protect the public interest! This is clearly evident in the successor PF2 model.