PFI - THE LAST CHANCE SALOON

The UK Government launched its private finance initiative (PFI) in 199 2 to improve procurement of public sector projects. But the complexiti es of putting design, build, finance and operate contracts out to tend er have meant that very few PFI schemes have actually got off the grou nd. Indeed, the initiative has been described by the chairman of one m ajor construction company as the 'last chance saloon, where the bar is rarely open and the drinks are too expensive when it is'. This paper reviews the progress of the PFI to date and concludes that greater fle xibility is needed to get it up and running. Only then will imaginativ e ideas-and the money to support them-really begin to flow.