and pfi in the news as a result?es from the national audit office, the government spending watchdog. they say that they cannot find evidence to back up the treasury ‘s gains. with an infrastructure programme, that they pay back of a long period. they cannot find evidence to support claims that it is cheaper than borrowing itself. it is worth noting that theresa may may get some flak for this but the report finds that 85% of payments made under pfi last year we re 85% of payments made under pfi last year were procurement decisions made more than ten years ago. it really isa more than ten years ago. it really is a story about a load of public policy decisions made by gordon brown, first in the treasury and then when you move to 10 downing st. yafai is not as popular with the government any more. but the rent on these buildings, the government and what the tax payer pays, it is comparable to the cost of the build? the cost of publicly financing projects can be 40% higher than relying solely upon government money. if tha

rv pfi scheme is a bad dealfor taxpayers?ell us that but they do tell us we will be facing a big bill asa tell us we will be facing a big bill as a result of pfi because basically it's like getting new hospitals and schools built and paying for it through a mortgage. you can have your new hospital now but you will be paying over 25 years or so with interest attached. bear in mind successive governments have backed the idea but significantly the national audit office says some schools have cost a0% more as a result of being built through pfi rather than through the public sector. 0ne hospital gusts 70% more and this has been seized on by jeremy corbyn because he has pledged to end pfi and nationalised existing pfi contracts so this plays to his agenda. all this of course comes in the wake of the collapse of carillion, which has also played to jeremy corbyn's argument about ensuring public services are provided by the public sector and not private contractors. and sometimes in politics you kind of need the wind behind you, and

why so keen on using pfi?d roads, of railway, and there was 19 years, nearly two decades of capital spending to catch up decades of capital spending to catch up on, and if we had done it the traditional way, lots of schools would have hacked to wait and hospitals. this allowed us to do everything at once, and so for example, in1997, everything at once, and so for example, in 1997, there were still schools in england with outside to i lets. schools in england with outside toilets. that was stopped immediately by the pfi funding. that was a very important thing, because there is a limit to what every government can borrow in one year. you can weaken your currency, which leads to problems that we are seeing at the moment is like a higher inflation that comes in through a load exchange rate, and also the threat to british companies, as the a weaker pound,... there was always a weaker pound,... there was always a limit on borrowing, and the question is, do you limit it and accept it, and then wait 20 years, or do y

the point to make is that there is an irony in the present attention to pfi as pfi since 2010 has fallen below the levels it reached under the labour government. partly as it is difficult to justify it in value for money terms because of the reduction of the interest rates. i mean once in the world of almost negative interest rates and the uk government has many other governments do, can borrow for almost zero. 0k. almost zero. ok. we will have to leave it there. professor heald, many thanks. thank you. now its time for meet the author. a car bomb in paris. a widow returns, joined by a detective and with two women trying to work out what happened and why. and their lives are intertwined. a thriller by peter may called i'll keep you safe. a puzzle where they cling to the old ways. a puzzle and a story that twists and turns and for him, another international bestseller. welcome. a rather obvious question: what makes a good thriller, peter?‘ a rather obvious question: what makes a good thriller, peter? a good question! i have no idea! you know it when you see it? i think that's exactly righ

tony blair and gordon brown turbo—charged the number of pfi contracts.lic sector projects. rohan silva advised david cameron on government delivery. the original thinking was to bring private sector investment, but also rigour and discipline, to the building of public sector projects. government wasn't so good at getting stuff built on time and on budget. the truth is, though, that this approach was really abused, particularly in the 2000s. it got extended to schools and hospitals, completely inappropriate for this type of financing. the collapse of carillion, a big pfi provider, has put the debate about private finance and public projects back in the spotlight. the government insists pfi has delivered, and the rules have been tightened. but today's report shows just how high the cost has been. kamal ahmed, bbc news. president trump has denied that his views have changed about building a wall along the border with mexico. building the wall was a key campaign pledge, and embodied his vision of america first. in the second of our reports charting a year of

what is the case for pfi?cle management of buildings. the public sector has not been necessarily good at managing the client side of construction and the client side of construction and the public sector has a fairly bad record of not looking after buildings after they've been commissioned. the point i would make in terms of your headline is that £10 billion a year is not necessarily a large amount of money in public expend tower terms. public expend tower in the uk is £800 billion. the worrying thing about the national audit office report is it shows that government is concerned about having investment off the government balance sheet. we have had successful reform in the way in which government departments and bodies do their accounts and report but in terms of national accounts, used for fiscal policy and control, the treasury is concerned about making sure that a part of public investment is off balance sheet and does not count towards fiscal targets. but isn't that fair enough? if you, you would not pay u

the treasury said pfi contracts ensured risk was borne by the private sector.previous year. figures from the ons look at how much we spend on housing, clothes and food — transport took the biggest chunk of cash — costing families about £80 a week. there has been a drop in sales at costa coffee. — like for like sales fell by 0.1 % in the last three months. whitbread which owns the chain, says that trading is tough on the high street. but like—for—like sales for the whole whitbread group, including the premier inn hotel chain, rose by 0.3% compared with the same period last year. and analysts seem satisfied with their figures across the year. on the headline numbers, it is a fairly decent update, on course for a fairly decent year. but, u nfortu nately, a fairly decent year. but, unfortunately, the costa chain has been suffering a little bit from a downturn in football. i think this is going to reignite speculation that actually be cost of business could get spun off. a bout a month ago, a hedge fund took a stake in whitbread, and they will maybe want to seizing

that is why i have been calling for a windfall tax on the pfi companies.corporation tax being reduced. there is a very strong case for the public sector to try to get some value for money out of these contracts to introduce a windfall tax, and to get these companies, there are only a few of them around doing it, around the table at the treasury. i don't understand is why the treasury has not done any of this thinking? it is not as if a windfall tax would have made carillion work any better, the last thing that company needed was an extra tax, right? but it would have made carillion think about how it manages its public contracts. i am struck by the fact that injune last year the nhs must have known that there was difficulty with the royal liverpool hospital, yet injuly we saw the department for transport giving them a whole series of contracts even though they issued a profit warning. 0ne arm of government is not talking to the other or we are giving these companies contracts because they cannot afford to fail. what makes you think that having the whole pr

the government says pfi schemes are more transparent and offer better value for money.s it's not a massive catastrophe. the new video assistant referee system caused its first strong debate last night with the former england captain calling it calling it a shambles — after chelsea were not awarded a penalty in their fa cup third round win over norwich. the shock of the night in the fa cup though came at wigan, where the league one side knocked out premier league bournemouth beating them 3—0. elsewhere, swansea beat wolves 2—1. and defending champions england have named their six nations squad for their first match against italy. eight uncapped players are named by eddie jones including northampton's harry mallinder. michelle so she was contacted by a supermarket delivery driver "i didn't tell the supermarket, it was creepy". another viewer says my daughter had several inappropriate text messages from a delivery goods driver. 12. the manager was dismissive. another person says use of personal data for anything other than the purpose it is collected for isa than the purpo

it is also building parts of hs2 and the royal liverpool hospital, thanks to pfi contracts.on, and that's why the government is chairing crucial talks about what might happen if carillion was placed into administration. what are the options if — and it's a big if — carillion cannot find a solution with its banks? the government could bail out the company and effectively nationalise it, with all the moral hazard attached to that. it could take back all the contracts with carillion and reassign them to healthier companies. or it could be placed into administration. consultants would then wind up unprofitable parts. potentially it could be devastating, because many of them are owed millions by carillion. if they don't get those monies, they are of course at risk as a business. the other thing, there will be thousands ofjobs potentially lost as a result. today is a vital day for carillion's 25,000 employees in britain and thousands more dependent on it. the government says it has robust contingency plans in place if the business collapses, but even if it survives, the issue of p

pfis are an expensive way of building infrastructure.sts more than it should and that the returns are not as great. something we are going to talk about for a long time. parents in england are subsidising free nursery care because it hasn't been properly funded by the government — that's according to a survey published today. since september, parents working more than 16 hours a week have been able to claim 30 hours of free childcare. but a majority of nurseries say they're struggling to cover costs, and are asking parents to pay for lunches and nappies. the government says it is investing 6 billion pounds in childcare by 2020. elaine dunkley reports. how many of the pink beads have we got? at sparkling stars pre—school in poole, the numbers do not add up. it is struggling financially provide children with 30 hours of free care each week, and says the government has not provided enough funding for the scheme. the only person that this policy is free to is the government. it's not free to providers. we're subsidising this policy. it's not

a big splash, the interview with jeremy corbyn, talking about carillion and pfi. story on the front page is about harassment at the un. yes, every day there has been a couple of big exclusives. there is the jeremy corbyn story and carillion and about outsourcing and using his opportunity to get away with using private partners. a nugget thatjeremy with using private partners. a nugget that jeremy corbyn brushed off concerns he would be too old to govern at the next election. and lots at westminster suggesting that he will be in his early 705 by lot5 at westminster suggesting that he will be in his early 705 by the next election if it is in 2022, that he may decide to stand down and talk about a successoi’. so he may decide to stand down and talk about a successor. so interesting to hear he is saying he is going to fight it and carry on. but a story also about hara55ment fight it and carry on. but a story also about harassment and sexual a55ault at the un. thi5 also about harassment and sexual a55ault at the un. this does not come as a surprise. a55ault at the un.

it will be embarrassing for the government, the pfi deal is not working and they have to come in withsation which goes against the principles of. at the ft, self driving cars face roadblocks over fears of weaponisation. a warning on foreign security concerns. should we be worried? this becomes no more than a a—wheel roman. imagine if you arejust than a a—wheel roman. imagine if you are just flying at drone with some form of bomb on it and you want to control that around airport. imagine then, think of the examples in london the past year with cars being driven as a weapon. you don't actually have to drive them because they are running automatically, then i think it is quite right to raise the possibility. is right to. it says it will face roadblocks but when it comes to this area of self driving vehicles and technology with cars, it is on that road to happening. absolutely. the only good thing about this is it will replace me driving. it can only get better. baby brain is real speed measurable phenomena in. australian scientists say. i have had three babies and i don't think i suffere

pfi, where do you put, should you be using public money to pay private companies?said a lot of these contracts date back to the new labourera. it was contracts date back to the new labour era. it was a gordon brown specialty to take this stuff off the government balance sheet, give it to a private company, sign a ten, 20—year deal to look after a hospital, provide cleaners or big infrastructure. but the great thing forjeremy corbyn is it's seen as so different so this he can get away with criticising something which was essentially a flagship policy of the la st essentially a flagship policy of the last labour government because for most voters they view him as a different beast. if it was any other leader, ed miliband, he would be... wouldn't be able to go in hard on this. forjeremy corbyn he can go, look, big primary colours, big sweeping statement, privatisation is bad, this is what it looks like, don't trust them, trust me instead. all right. the telegraph. horrible story. poppi worthington, 13 months old. a coroner ruled she was sexually assaulted before she d

it is also building parts of hs2 and the royal liverpool hospital thanks to pfi contracts.ut it also owes the bank more than £1 million, and that is why there are crucial talks today about what might happen if carillion is placed into administration. so, what are the options if, and that is a big if, carillion cannot find a solution with the banks? the government could deal out the company and essentially nationalise it with the moral hazard attached to that. it could take back all of the contracts with carillion and reassign them to help their companies. or it could put them in administration. consultants would then end up on profitable parts. the potential could be devastating. many of them are owed millions by carillion, and if they do not get those monies, well, their business could be at risk. the other thing is thousands ofjobs will potentially be lost as a result. today is a vital day for the 20,000 employees in britain of carillion and thousands more completely dependent on it. the government says it has robust contingency plans in place if the business collapses. b

so you are admitting that pfi, in your view it was wrong to do that.” admitting that pfi, in your viewecognise that and we need a new method to provide these public infrastructure schemes, and also a sta ke. infrastructure schemes, and also a stake. iron it is a worrying time for all those people watching brea kfast for all those people watching breakfast this morning who in some pa rt breakfast this morning who in some part work for or supply carillion. what can you do to help reassure them that they will be... this will be sorted out? well, the government has to step in immediately. that is the crucial factor here that needs to be put into place today. that will give reassurance to workers that they will be transferred across into potential government institutions which will provide these services. it will also give comfort to those companies in the supply chain who rely on carillion. thank you very much for being here, and we will of course be putting in calls as well to the government to get a response. thank you very much for your time. that is our lead story this morning. here is

the government says it only approves pfi schemes that are value for money.e, meghan markle. the couple did a walkabout at cardiff castle — after arriving an hour late due to train delays. 0ur royal correspondent sarah campbell is in cardiff. sarah, people were not put off by the weather publicly? they certainly won't. it was a long wait outside cardiff castle. just so you no, because there is a chance they will because there is a chance they will be leaving this building very shortly, so if they do i will move out of the way. this is the tremorfa area of the city, and this is star hub. they have been meeting young people, this is a special project which tries to encourage young people, particularly disadvantaged young people, to get into sport. their first young people, to get into sport. theirfirst engagement young people, to get into sport. their first engagement of the day was in the historic grounds of cardiff castle. there were around 400-500 cardiff castle. there were around 400—500 people who waited for a long time to see them. and they shook hands fo

carillion was one half of the private finance initiative or pfi company constructing the new royal.trust boss can't say when. it's very frustrating. i am as frustrated as anybody else. but obviously with all that's happening with the company it's impossible to give a date at the moment. the new hospital company do have the rights to appoint new contractors to finish the hospital and until that's done we won't be clearer. the current royal liverpool opened 40 years ago. and is showing its age. it's notjust carillion jobs which are at risk in the north—west and elsewhere. the federation for small businesses says carillion hasn't paid a number of subcontractors for months and if they don't get their money, their future could be in doubt too. the new royal was originally meant to openin new royal was originally meant to open in march last year. then carillion said it would defer the handover to the end of this february. that date too was in doubt, even before the company collapsed. i am extremely concerned about the new royal liverpool hospital. the completion has already been delayed.

there is the much broader question about the future of government procurement, pfi contracts. 0n commonswill be launching an investigation into the much broader issue of how these contracts are awarded, how government procurement should be run, and certainly from the labour benches this is a key ideological difference they have with the government. they feel far too many of these contracts are given to big companies without sufficient scrutiny, and labour said if they win the next election they will review a whole swathe of pfi contracts and perhaps take some in—house. this was already before the collapse of carillion, sensitive contentious political territory. thank you. just to add a few lines to what then was saying before i speak to vince cable ina was saying before i speak to vince cable in a few moments, right on the theme that he was explaining about contingency planning, we are now being told the head of the civil services has been giving evidence to a parliamentary select committee and says that weeks and weeks of contingency planning has happened ahead of this event, this colla

through pfi, £60 billion pounds of infrastructure.ones and bad ones, but the structure of what we do in that particular case, the joint venture of three companies. in particular for this reason, the risks are shared, and in this case one company has said, we will cover this. that is why we structure it that way. this is of course a much bigger debate and of course there are various better companies and worse companies, but i think in general the use of private infrastructure, this country is actually very good at building infrastructure through the private sector and various financing constructs, delivery authorities. there are successful. the point he makes is right, one of the things we have learned over the years, i have certainly learned space following the gas saga. over the last three format years we prioritised building the quality of our commercial profession. making sure everyone in it is of the right standard through an assessment centre. and just having much more of a grip, better information about contracts. and also peopl

contractors sometimes have to borrow money to invest, that happens with the pfi at uclh.ate can borrow more cheaply than anybody else, that is a waste of money. fourth, we often see contracts given to companies who have known 11 track —— no relevean track record because their expertise is unimportant. finally, outsourcing often means workplaces where staff work for many different employers, so some employees will find it difficult to progress to other roles where they work, adding to the precariousness of a lot of already hard working lives. phil bentley is chief executive of the out sourcing company mighty, which holds many government contracts. this is his first interview since the collapse of carillion. thank you forjoining us. do you want carillion‘s public contracts? we don't have as many public contracts as carillion do with the government but we have some. i think the more important thing is, what can we do to help people who are worried about theirjobs today, the ha rd—working people at carillion? i think the government is doing the right thing to put a stop on it

also, isn't there perhaps a structural problem within the whole pfi system in that it is about tenderingndercut to get the deal. i spoke to the head of asset at public asset at 0xfordshire county council yesterday, who said that about three months before the profit warning last year they did not want to use carillion any more because the quality of the work wasn't good enough. and in fact they were undercutting so much that they were not able to meet the quality standards of the work they had to do. you have to slightly differentiate between the private finance initiative, where the government essentially gives lock stock and four smoking barrels, all of the assets over to an organisation like carillion. and then asks them to manage them. and then asks them to manage them. and then tendering for a contract. with actually, whatever system we have in the future, 0xfordshire county council, or whoever, will not have the capacity to do whatever it is themselves in—house. they will have to put it out to a contractor like carillion to do it. of course they will bid for it. you have to accept t

. >> and tucson, arizona, i went to am pfi. don't be mad. entering peak cold and flu season.et sick? >> and jill martin has you covered with hot bargains on cold weather clothing and a brand new start "today" deal of the day. >> also, trying to lose weight but can't seem to kick the sweets. a recipe with a lighter version of dessert favorites. so tasty you will not know it's at all healthy. not healthy but better. >> i love it when young women get involved in male-dominated sports or activities. a woman was about to get kicked out of school. having a delinquency problem and decided to go for the all-boys wrestling team. made it. completely turned her life around. wound up serving our country. what she's doing for other young girls will make you want to be a juvenile delinquent, too! >> awesome. >> how to wrestle like a girl. >> leak forward ook forward to >>> and the olympics, opening ceremony three weeks. we're so happy. katie couric will cover the ceremonies with mike tirico. three weeks from friday. right here. >> packing our bags, too. mr. roker, a check of the weather. >

the whole pfi project was expanded under tony blair and gordon brown because they saw it as a way ofthey don't care who is building them, theyjust want them belt, they do not care who is performing the operation, they just want do not care who is performing the operation, theyjust want it done. by operation, theyjust want it done. byjeremy corbyn say it's not that simple and services suffer and money gets pushed to one side because private companies obviously focus on profits and so some of the money that could go into improving and investing in public services inevitably gets siphoned off. it's a pretty fundamental ideological moment and also the moment when many people they will be watching, people who work for carillion work in the supply chain for carillion who are desperate for clarity about their future. we are slightly in limbo about what will happen to many thousands of people because they do not know if they will have a job beyond today. let's see if we can find out as prime minister's questions gets underway. this morning i had meetings in addition to my duties in this hous

right now, right pfi is under a huge amount of pressure after 20 years for that very reason. think one of the things you've got to start to look at is what kind of projects we need and how you get the private sector and the public sector actually working together it's not just ppps there's seven different waste. >> ppps being. >> public private partnerships outright privatization, acquiring assets for 20 or 30 years to use, et cetera. >> right >> there's a lot of different ways to do this. >> we appreciate it. >> thank you very much. >> nice to see you. >> nice to see you. >> let's keep talking about this because i imagine this is going to be a big topic for this evening and hopefully for a long time. >>> coming up when we return, the national economic council director gary cohn will join us ahead of the state of the union address with the president we have that interview at 8:00 a.m. eastern time. so much to talk to him about checking out the futures we have said it before, would he will say it again. it has gotten worse. the dow looking like it will open off we are now in t

and nationalise existing pfi contracts.a. and all this comes in the wake of the collapse of carillion which has also played to mr corbyn‘s argument about ensuring that public services are provided by the public sector and not private contractors. and sometimes in politics you kind of need the wind behind you and at the moment mr corbyn seems to be enjoying a couple of helpful gussets to push his argument about the advantages of the public sector over the private sector —— helpful gusts. the northern ireland secretary has announced that talks to restore the devolved government at stormont are to resume next week. karen bradley, who was appointed last week, made the announcement alongside the irish deputy prime minister simon coveney. power—sharing between the democratic unionists and sinn fein collapsed more than a year ago. let's have a look at the weather and it is windy. we have had the strongest of the winds with gusts of up to 83 mph in norfolk last night. they have brought down trees, but the strongest have eased away.

we have the scandal of pfi as well, billions of pounds creamed off in dividends and chill for the paymentsools being charged extortionate amount for repairs. it is right to have collaboration with the private sector on things but when it is not in the taxpayers' interest we need to have a long hard look at protecting the taxpayer. the cost to the taxpayer of the colla pse the cost to the taxpayer of the collapse of carillion is another crucial issue. no figure has been put on that and it's very difficult at this point to say. ministers are saying about procurement, they will look at all of that but in the coming days, the anger will increase and the demand for answers to some of these things will also increase as well. thank you. don't forget — you can let us know what you think, tweet us using the hashtag afternoonlive. all the ways to contact us on screen right now. 13 brothers and sisters, aged from 2 to 29, have been found dirty and malnourished at their home in california. some were chained to their beds. police carried out the rescue after one girl managed to escape and raise the ala