The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) will hold an evidence session
as part of its inquiry into government's use of
private finance for infrastructure at 3.30pm
on Monday 12th May.
New infrastructure has been identified as central to economic
growth by the government, which has indicated that it plans to
work in partnership with the private sector to deliver this
investment. Around £1 trillion of potential capital investment
was identified in February 2024 by
the Infrastructure and Projects Authority over the coming
decades. A wide range of private financing models exist,
including the widely-used Private Finance Initiative (PFI).
The National Audit Office recently reported with lessons for
decision-makers on how to create the right conditions to support
investor and public confidence in the use of private finance for
infrastructure investment, in the context of government's
forthcoming 10 Year Infrastructure
Strategy. The PAC will question two panels informed by the
NAO's report; the first with experts in infrastructure finance
and public-private sector partnerships, and the second with
relevant senior government officials.
The report also found that public sector bodies are due to pay
£136bn in charges up until 2052-53 for all 665 ongoing PFI
contracts. Half of these contracts are set to expire within the
next decade, marking a period of transition of a significant
number of assets to the public sector. The PAC is likely to
explore how prepared public bodies are for the expiry of their
PFI contracts, with other potential topics for discussion
including recruitment and retention of people with specialist
skills (a challenge for the infrastructure sector in general),
and when private finance is appropriate to fund infrastructure.
Witnesses
Panel One from 3.30pm:
- Bruce Dalgleish, Partner and
Co-founder at P2G LLP
- Darryl Murphy, Managing Director at
Aviva Investors
Panel Two from approx. 4.15pm:
-
CB, Permanent Secretary at
HM Treasury
- Conrad Smewing, DG for Public Spending at HM Treasury
- David Lunn, Interim Commercial Finance Director at HM
Treasury
-
, Interim Chief
Executive at National Infrastructure Transformation Authority
(NISTA)
- Matthew Vickerstaff, Deputy Chief Executive at NISTA
