Private Finance Initiatives “not value for money”

A spending watchdog has warned that paying for schools and hospitals through the Private Finance Initiative will cost hundreds of billions of pounds.

The National Audit Office said taxpayers will have to foot a 199 billion pound bill for projects outsourced to private companies over the next three decades under PFI.

The report was compiled even before one of the government’s main PFI contractors Carillion went into liquidation earlier this week.

Our Business editor Siobhan Kennedy reports.