PFI is in need of drastic surgery, according to the people who are struggling to work with it. In this procurement special, Angela Monaghan talks to contractors about high bid costs and strained capacity and asks if the government is ready to respond to calls for reform Plus Mark Leftly examines the challenge for firms to make profit running public services and the chairman of the PPP Forum warns that the government may miss its schools targets... The PFI is here to stay. That is what the government has said, and what the industry has accepted. And it is why the two principal complaints with the process have to be treated. They are: the enormous amount of money it costs to bid, and the diminishing number of firms that are willing to do so. These are not teething problems; they are inherent in the present system. As the single most important client in the UK, the government has been able to call all the shots thus far. But now, on the eve of the Labour party conference, there are signs that ministers are starting to listen. So it's up to the industry to grab this chance and drive through change that is clearly needed if schemes such as the failed pound;1bn Paddington Health Campus and the delayed Plymouth Hospital are anything to go by. The industry may already be in continual dialogue with the Treasury, as well as the Department of Health and Department for Education and Skills, but to drive home the changes it needs, it has to make a coherent and practical argument. If bid costs are becoming prohibitive and capacity is strained, the public sector is going to have to be convinced to become a better client, and the design process must be reformed.
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