A group of 40 Labour MPs have written to Chancellor Rachel Reeves, urging her to scrap proposals to fund NHS infrastructure through private finance initiatives (PFIs).
PFIs are a type of public-private partnership where private companies fund, build, and maintain public infrastructure, such as hospitals or schools, while the government repays them over many years.
As an example, PFI enabled the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham to be built quickly by leveraging private funding and transferring construction and maintenance risks to the private sector.
Originally intended to deliver projects without increasing national debt, PFIs have been criticised in the letter for higher long-term costs, inflexible contracts and burdening NHS trusts with decades of repayments.
The MPs, including
Not yet a Subscriber?
This is a small extract of the full article which is available ONLY to premium content subscribers. Click below to get premium content on Building Better Healthcare.
Subscribe now Already a subscriber? Sign in here.