PFI has been a failure – and Carillion is the tip of the iceberg

Carillion’s collapse has brought with it wider scrutiny of the way that UK public services are contracted out to businesses – particularly through the use of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes. The UK’s second largest construction business had a network of these contracts, worth billions of pounds, providing essential public services across government departments. The NHS, defence, education, energy, and prisons have all been left exposed by its collapse. While the winter crisis tightens its grip on the NHS, two urgently needed hospitals – the Midland Metropolitan and the Royal Liverpool – that were supposed to be constructed by Carillion under PFI arrangements, now await state rescue. In addition, the fire service must now stand by to deliver the school meals Carillion was contracted to provide. But the company’s collapse is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the failure of PFI to give the public good value for money.