The UK's largest construction firms have cast doubt on chancellor George Osborne's ambition to attract up to £20bn of institutional investment into infrastructure and have called for the government to adopt a more "realistic" approach focused on a reformed private finance initiative, writes Allister Hayman. In the autumn, Osborne said he wanted to raise £20bn from pension funds as part of a plan to boost investment in UK infrastructure and has launched talks with institutional investors aimed at realising this. But in its response to the government's consultation on reform of the private finance initiative (PFI), the UK Contractors Group (UKCG) said it was "highly unlikely" that institutional investors, such as pension funds, would invest "in large numbers" in infrastructure schemes as the government hoped, owing to the perceived high risk. It said this was despite the reality that "in the vast majority of cases assets are built to time and budget".
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