As mentioned earlier, the main reason changes are difficult to implement on PPPs is the large number of parties that need to agree to the change.
The only way to overcome this is to give government the ability to remove non-consenting parties from the transaction. In particular, government could attempt to include provisions in the PPP contract that give government:
• the right to require SPV to replace the Operator;
• the right to buy-out non-consenting debt financiers; and
• the right to buy-out the equity investors.
These rights are really difficult to obtain, even if government offers to fully compensate the party being taken out, as the knock-on consequences for those remaining in the transaction could be very significant.
That said, they have been obtained to varying degrees on some, but not all, of the projects discussed in this paper.
Even if obtained, they can end up very expensive to exercise, particularly if interest rate swaps and the like are "out-of-the-money" at the time government elects to break these early by taking a party out.