The Railtrack administration in October has further fuelled the debate on the future of publicly funded infrastructure, including PFI. Despite the fact that the railway network was not a PPP project, the Railtrack failure has cast a shadow over PPP projects. The debate regarding what, if any, are the other options to this form of procurement has intensified.
Before we try to make the leap of searching for alternative methods of procurement it should be remembered that the principles of PFI/PPP are not set in stone. Since PFI was first introduced in the early 1990s, publicly-funded infrastructure projects have continually evolved, with lessons being learned as each deal is finalised and as each project progresses through its concession period.
