Tony Blair’s Private Finance deals still haunt the NHS, new league table reveals

6 December 2024

A new league table has revealed that private finance initiative (PFI) deals signed off by Tony Blair’s government continue to cripple the National Health Service, hampering its efforts to treat more patients.

This new analysis by We Own It shows how badly historic PFI deals are ripping off different NHS trusts in England and preventing them from fixing their hospitals to treat more patients.

The research found that:

NHS Trusts in England with current PFI debt will have paid back on average almost eight (8) times the initial PFI capital put into their trusts, with Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust having the worst payback ratio at 27 times what was borrowed.
On the average PFI project, NHS trusts have already paid back over three and half times what was borrowed, but they still owe £605 million on average or £44 billion across all 80 PFI-laden trusts
78 out of the 80 NHS trusts with current PFI debt have already paid off the initial capital investment. Of the 78 trusts that’ve already paid off the capital amount, 60 (or almost 8 out of 10) could clear the entire trust’s repairs backlog with the amount they still owe in PFI debt.

Almost half of all MPs (294) represent constituencies served by NHS Trusts with historic PFI debt.

This finding comes as the press has revealed that Health Secretary Wes Streeting is currently considering a new private finance proposal that could saddle our NHS with yet another disastrous relationship with private finance for the next generation. The deal, which would see private firms invest £1 billion to expand private healthcare capacity in England, would lock the NHS into long, damaging contracts with those firms – just like historic PFI deals.

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