The Great PFI Debt.

The BBC has put the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) under the spotlight, and what it found should concern every school and council still locked into one of these contracts.

Its coverage, an article and the radio programme The Great PFI Debt, laid bare the reality of PFI in education: schools paying more every year, for buildings that too often are not kept in the condition they are paying for. As those contracts head for expiry, the bill lands on the public sector.

Why this matters.

PFI was sold as a way to invest in public buildings without borrowing up front. Nearly 600 of those deals are still running across schools and hospitals in England, and many are now nearing their end. The National Audit Office has already warned of the risk: as contracts wind down, private companies have little incentive to spend money before they hand the buildings back. Schools and councils inherit the shortfall.

That is the debt in The Great PFI Debt. Not just money, but years of deferred maintenance and hard decisions arriving all at once.

Inscyte has been in this fight since 2007.

Inscyte has supported schools, academy trusts and councils with their PFI contracts since 2007. Our Director, Ian Denison, set out the reality on the radio programme, alongside the day-to-day challenges these organisations face. We have since guided 47 schools through the expiry process, so we know exactly where these contracts bite, and how to push back.

Redressing the balance.

The article and the programme give a small insight into why our team works so hard to redress the balance of these contracts for the benefit of the public sector. That is the whole point of Inscyte. We read the contracts others will not, hold providers to their obligations, and get the public sector the value it was promised.

The PFI landscape will change fast over the next decade. The organisations that plan early are the ones that come out ahead.