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Privately Financed Capital in Public Services
Author(s) -
Heald David
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
the manchester school
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.361
H-Index - 42
eISSN - 1467-9957
pISSN - 1463-6786
DOI - 10.1111/1467-9957.00082
Subject(s) - exchequer , private sector , economics , private finance initiative , finance , public sector , capital requirement , public economics , business , profit (economics) , microeconomics , economy , economic growth , politics , political science , law
Recent changes in U.K. policy, notably the retirement of the 1981 Ryrie rules, presage a substantial increase in the use of private finance for public sector projects. The most important features of the relaxations of 1989 and 1992 relate to successive modifications of the value‐for‐money test, notably in connection with removing the requirement for a systematic comparison with a hypothetical publicly financed project (e.g. when the private sector can be directly remunerated by user tolls); less stringent rules on leasing; and allowing private borrowing on the security of Exchequer‐funded assets. The crucial issues are identified to be the extent of private finance and the implications for macroeconomic indicators; whether the hypothesized operational efficiency gains are sufficient to offset higher financing costs; whether risk is genuinely transferred to the private sector; and whether risk ought to be transferred to the private sector.