Editing Private finance initiative (section)

===Waste===
A [[BBC Radio 4]] investigation into PFI noted the case of Balmoral High School in Northern Ireland which cost £17m to build in 2002. In 2007 the decision was made to close the school because of lack of pupils. But the PFI contract is due to run for another 20 years, so the taxpayer will be paying millions of pounds for an unused facility.<ref name="bnpl">{{Citation| last = Sheeran| first = Robin| title = Buy Now, Pay Later| newspaper = BBC| date = 21 June 2007| url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/6768083.stm}}</ref>

With regard to hospitals, Prof. [[Nick Bosanquet]] of [[Imperial College London]] has argued that the government commissioned some PFI hospitals without a proper understanding of their costs, resulting in a number of hospitals which are too expensive to be used. He said:

{{blockquote|There are already one or two PFI hospitals where wards and wings are standing empty because nobody wants to buy their services. There will be a temptation to say 'right we are stuck with these contracts so we will close down older hospitals', which may in fact be lower cost. Just closing down non-PFI hospitals in order to up activity in the PFI ones is not going to be the answer because we may have the wrong kind of services in the wrong places.<ref name="phpc"/>}}

In 2012, it was reported that dozens of [[NHS Trust]]s labouring under PFI-related debts were at risk of closure.<ref>{{cite web |last= Hern |first= Alex |date= 26 June 2012 |title= Live near one of these hospitals? Try not to get ill soon. |url= http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/politics/2012/06/live-near-one-these-hospitals-try-not-get-ill-soon |work= The Staggers |publisher= NewStatesman.com |access-date= 26 June 2012 }}</ref>

According to [[Stella Creasy]], a self-acknowledged PFI "nerd", the fundamental problem was the rate of interest charged because of a lack of competition between providers. "Barts was a £1bn project. They’ll pay back £7bn. That is not good value for money".  She wants to see a windfall tax on the PFI companies.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Bedpan: It's difficult for people to imagine different could be good |url=https://www.hsj.co.uk/7024439.article? |access-date=20 March 2019 |publisher=Health Service Journal |date=17 February 2019}}</ref>