PFI.

(From Derby Evening Telegraph)

With oceans of red tape, incessant contract negotiations and high costs on both sides, private finance initiatives have been mooted as the latest victim of the credit crisis.

And there is no doubt that with high-level funding harder to come by from banks, the number of companies with the clout to embark on PFI schemes is falling.

This month, the Treasury announced it was prepared to lend all the cash required to PFI projects to make sure they got off the ground. But if the private finance is removed from PFI, then is the whole concept on its last legs? Not according to John Betterton, group business development director at Heage-based Bowmer and Kirkland.

The company is involved in the Building Schools for the Future programme - a project structured much like a PFI.

He said: "Building Schools shares many of the characteristics of PFI in the way it is being funded. It has taken two years for our …