Private Finance initiative (PFI) contracts have been and will be with us for some considerable time but there’s an ever-increasing number of PFI contracts now set to expire.

In July 2020 the Government published its much-anticipated draft Building Safety Bill. Described by the Housing Secretary as the “biggest improvements to building safety in nearly 40 years”, the Bill goes beyond the traditional boundaries of regulatory change and seeks to bring forward a clearer regulatory system with residents’ safety at its heart.

The government has proposed many changes to the planning system in England in its White Paper ‘Planning for the future’.

The UK is set to spend over £9bn this year on PFI contracts – and a total of £48bn in the next five years. This level of spending will continue until we see the first peak in contracts expiring around 2030. Expiry will see assets worth £14bn (their original capital value) transferring back to public ownership.