PFI companies like Innisfree usually hire sharper lawyers and accountants than councils, so these projects tend to become scandals where government is fleeced. Here, Innisfree is accused of taking dividends early then letting the PFI company collapse at the end of its term with work not finished and the council having no tools to make the PFI company’s owner save it.

The bigger scandal is some politicians who ignore or deny this danger and still want more PFI and PPP with minimal safeguards.