Editing Private finance initiative (section)

=== Treasury ===
In July 1997 a PFI taskforce was established within the [[HM Treasury|Treasury]] to provide central co-ordination for the roll-out of PFI. Known as the Treasury Taskforce (TTF), its main responsibilities are to standardise the procurement process and train staff throughout government in the ways of PFI, especially in the private finance units of other government departments. The TTF initially consisted of a policy arm staffed by five civil servants, and a projects section employing eight private sector executives led by [[Adrian Montague]], formally co-head of Global Project Finance at [[investment bank]] Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. In 1999 the policy arm was moved to the [[Office of Government Commerce]] (OGC), but it was subsequently moved back to the Treasury. The projects section was part-privatised and became [[Partnerships UK]] (PUK). The Treasury retained a 49% '[[golden share]]', while the majority stake in PUK was owned by private sector investors. PUK was then staffed almost entirely by private sector procurement specialists such as corporate lawyers, [[investment banking|investment bankers]], consultants and so forth. It took the lead role in evangelising PFI and its variants within government, and was in control of the policy's day-to-day implementation.<ref name="wesp">{{Citation| first = Mark| last = Hellowell| title = Written evidence to the Finance Committee of the Scottish Parliament with regards to its inquiry into the funding of capital investment| year = 2007| publisher = University of Edinburgh| url = http://www.health.ed.ac.uk/CIPHP/Documents/ScottishFinanceCommittee.pdf}}{{dead link|date=April 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In March 2009, in the face of funding difficulties caused by the [[2008 financial crisis]], the [[HM Treasury|Treasury]] established an Infrastructure Finance Unit with a mandate to ensure the continuation of PFI projects.<ref name='wpga'>{{Citation| last = Timmins| first = N.| title = Big PFI waste project goes ahead| newspaper = The Financial Times| date = 9 April 2009| url = http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1e41d626-249f-11de-9a01-00144feabdc0.html| archive-url = http://wayback.vefsafn.is/wayback/20110809114932/http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1e41d626-249f-11de-9a01-00144feabdc0.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = 9 August 2011}}</ref> In April 2009, the unit stumped up £120m of public money to ensure that a new waste disposal project in Manchester would go ahead. Andy Rose, the unit head, said: "This is what we were set up to do, to get involved where private sector capital is not available."<ref name='wpga'/> In May 2009 the unit proposed to provide £30m to bail out a second PFI project, a £700m waste treatment plant in Wakefield. In response, [[Tony Travers]], Director of the [[Greater London Group]] at the [[London School of Economics]] described the use of public money to finance PFI as "Alice in Wonderland economics".<ref>{{Citation| last = Webb| first = Tim| title = Treasury set to bail out second recession-hit PFI| newspaper = The Observer| date = 10 May 2009| url = https://www.theguardian.com/business/2009/may/10/pfi-vt-bail-out-treasury| location=London}}</ref>

The House of Commons [[Public Accounts Committee (United Kingdom)|Public Accounts Committee]] has criticised the Treasury for failing to negotiate better PFI funding deals with banks in 2009. The committee revealed that British taxpayers are liable for an extra £1bn because the Treasury failed to find alternative ways to fund infrastructure projects during the [[2008 financial crisis]]. The committee "suggests that the government should have temporarily abandoned PFI to directly fund some projects, instead of allowing the banks – many of which were being bailed out with billions of pounds of public money at the time – to increase their charges . . . by up to 33%".<ref name="Treanor 2010">{{Citation
  | last1 = Treanor | first1 = Jill
  | last2 = Curtis   | first2 = Polly
  | title = Banks charged extra £1bn for PFI schemes
  | newspaper = The Guardian
  | date = 9 December 2010
  | url = https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/dec/09/private-finance-initiatives-costs-soared
  | access-date = 29 December 2010
  | location=London
}}</ref>