Solutions of the British private finance initiative as an example of the PPP development and public-private cooperation

Abstract

Public-private partnership (PPP) is an institution which enables to perform public tasks with the use of private partner’s experience and competence. By appropriate preparation and implementation, it may bring a lot of benefits not only to the private partner and public entity but also to local community. An example of such preparation and implementation is the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) functioning in the UK. The aim of this article is to evaluate the British PFI and to indicate specific legal solutions whose implementation would result in enhancing the attractiveness of PPP application. Therefore, the research problem is to answer the question: are there elements or features in the British PPP having significance to the implementation of public-private cooperation? According to the research hypothesis, in the PPP system functioning in the UK there are elements and features which indicate their key role in the implementation of the public-private cooperation. The article presents PFI scheme in the UK and changes which have been made in this institution over the years. The example of PFI shows legal solutions targeted at improving the PPP application.