UK govt extends support

The UK government has extended its support for important infrastructure projects under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) amid the ongoing credit crisis.

The UK Treasury minister Yvette Cooper has announced that the government will safeguard £13 billion worth of PFI projects including £3.5 billion of waste treatment and environmental projects, £3.1 billion of transport projects and £2.4 billion of schools projects.

PFI is an arrangement, under which the public sector contracts to purchase services, usually derived from an investment in infrastructure assets, from the private sector on a long-term basis. UK has a total of 630 signed PFI projects, of which 540 are operational and have not significantly affected by the credit crunch. However, nearly 110 PFI projects are currently in the pipeline, waiting financial close.