OAP I certainly am a UK taxpayer although not quite sure how that bears on the issue. At the risk of thread leap, clearly there are issues with the terms of this particular deal but is it the concept of PFI we need to question? Used correctly, the concept is ok, the problem is when used by smiling politico's to deliver shiny goodies which have to be paid for by their rivals decades later! Of course the overall cost is a lot more but one could say the same about buying a house with a mortgage...and I'm very happy for anyone in the lovely position of being able to do so without one,