The essential problem is a structural deficiency in the public sector, which prevents it pooling expertise, either across regions or departments. Every time a public sector body embarks on a PFI deal, it must reinvent the wheel, demanding that exasperated private sector participants debate the same points, from scratch.
Every procurer is a first-time buyer.
The key task for the public sector now is to create systems or institutions to encourage the transfer of experience gained on one transaction to subsequent deals. From the banks' point of view, it is suggested that PFI is currently the focus of the London market by default, and if the world market picks up, they will re-allocate resources away from PFI deals. Like any other category of projects work, PFI deals are vulnerable to an unsettled bond market, both in the UK and globally. At the highest level of public sector policy making, the commitment to private sector funding and provision public services is clear. Of course, more specific factors help or hinder the PFI as a whole.