P3 projects slow to a trickle

Six months after repeated disasters forced the British government to review its policy to develop infrastructure via public private partnerships (P3s), the number of new P3 projects has fallen dramatically. The Financial Times reports that 85% fewer P3 projects were agreed to in the first four months of 2012 compared with one year earlier.

The construction industry is not pleased: The head of the UK Contractors Group (comprised of 30 big contracting firms) said the government needed to make “clear decisions soon...I don’t know if the government is going to tweak the model or do something more radical. But it would be good to have a clear signal from government as to where they are going with it.”

The head of infrastructure at KPMG, told the Financial Times “The industry is being crushed between the loss of commercial activity and the government turning off the tap on its own spending. It needs projects now."

P3 corporations made very big profits for many years from the public purse -- while jobs were privatized and public services cut. So it's hard to shed too many tears for their current predicament.

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