PFI projects cost the taxpayer an extra £1bn at the height of the credit crisis

Private finance initiative (PFI) projects such as new hospitals cost the taxpayer an additional £1bn (€1.2bn; $1.6bn) at the height of the United Kingdom’s 2008 credit crisis, it has been shown.

The PFI projects, in which private companies build hospitals with NHS trusts repaying them typically over 30 years, proved to be even more expensive when the country faced financial problems in 2008, according to a report published on 9 December by the parliamentary public accounts committee.

The report, Financing PFI projects in the credit crisis and the Treasury’s response, using evidence from the Treasury, examined its response to financing PFI projects in the …