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...

<title>Abstract</title> The UK's Private Finance Initiative now involves billions of pounds' worth of capital investment in the public sector. Achievement of value for money is, therefore, a very important consideration. This study into value for money and economic analysis of PFI projects is based on...

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,...

Scotland has much higher public expenditure per head than England, but little work has been done to compare Scottish and English needs. We compare their needs for school education, and we show that if the Formula Spending Share approach that is used to estimate English local authorities’ needs...

"This paper distinguishes between the Private Finance Initiative (PFI) and the more general Public Private Partnerships (PPP). It traces the growth of the initiative since its start in 1992 to the current day and considers the implications of PFI for the public finances. A number of economic...

The paper examines the relationship between some key measures of macroeconomic performance and fiscal decentralization in OECD countries, and the impact on this relationship of increased policy co-ordination among countries since 1985. It is shown that prior to 1985 there was a significant...

The European Water Framework Directive provides a new impetus to manage river catchments in more integrated, joined-up ways. This article looks at the role of stakeholders in integrated catchment management. Taking the work of the Environment Agency as a case study, the article begins by looking...

In the event of a disaster, communities become the targets of specialist organisations and a concentration of activities. The complex unstructured activities and routines of daily life are disrupted and even totally overwhelmed by a single catastrophic event that requires a redirection of...