Failing standards

摘要

The private finance initiative is coming of age. Since the growing pains of the 1990s, the number of deals signed, and players that have emerged, are such that there is now a mature and well established PFI market. Procuring authorities are more experienced and better advised. Many are now procuring their second or third PFI project and have their own specialist PFI/PPP teams in-house. And the private sector players in the market are more discerning. Bidding consortia and their fun-ders understand the issues better and come to the table with fully developed commercial positions. Yet paradoxically, at the same time as we are seeing the emergence of a far more sophisticated PFI market, we are witnessing a more inflexible approach from central government.