Traditionally, when the public sector wanted more capital assets, it borrowed funds for the purpose. Under the Private Finance Initiative (PFI), private consortia borrow funds to build assets and then, in return for a charge, use them to provide services for the public sector. The authors...

Scottish citizens enjoy 25% more spending per head on public services than English citizens, but almost nothing is known about the countries’ relative needs and hence about how far this gap is defensible. We explore their spending needs for local authority services, which cover over half the...

This paper applies Scotland’s health allocation formula to Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in England, Health Boards in Wales, and Health and Social Care Trusts in Northern Ireland in order to assess the relative health care expenditure needs of the countries. According to the Scottish formula,...