Moving the PPP conversation from contract expiry to new endeavours

What next?

The Operational Public-Private Partnerships Summit (OPPPS) at Celtic Manor – 2 December 2025 to 3 December 2025 captured a mix of hot topics and discussion points across the sector. There was a central thread of optimism following references in the 2025 Autumn Budget to ‘a new model of Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs)’ to support the Neighbourhood Health Centres (NHCs) programme. This culminated in a celebration of operational excellence at the OPPPS Awards, which spotlighted public and private sector success in areas such as community engagement and handback discipline. 

This article sets out the current status of Private Finance Initiative (PFI), using our recent experience with handback, insights from the OPPPS regarding future models, and key questions that must be answered by authorities and advisers for a successful transition into operation post-handback under any model – whether operational or future.

PFI today – a broad spectrum of experiences

The OPPPS demonstrated that there is a wealth of successful projects across sectors. While these rarely receive the publicity of more challenged projects, the fact that only one or two PFI expiries have made the headlines in 2025 for the wrong reasons suggests that the vast majority have been successful (10 expiries were projected for 2025 in the National Infrastructure & Services Transformation Authority (NISTA) ‘Preparing for PFI contract expiry‘ report). 

However, there is still a large number of live contracts (21 PFI expiries are forecast for 2026, and 14 in 2027). It is recognised that learnings from earlier expiries must be considered to ensure a smooth handback transition. Winners at the Operational PPP Awards recognised successful examples of handback support. Strong data maturity, contract knowledge, and collaboration culture were the clear characteristics of those successes recognised in the awards.

Similarly, our experience of PFI contract expiry demonstrates that corporate memory is critical to achieving an effective and low friction handback. Issues that might appear historical often re-emerge as expiry approaches, creating tension between parties. This is exacerbated when individuals were not present at the time of the original issue and therefore do not have the requisite details to produce evidence of agreed approaches. What this experience and the Operational PPP Award winners tell us is that having a fundamental knowledge and evidence base amongst individuals working on the contract must be built into any future PPP model. 

Looking forward – how future PPP models might take shape

Any future model of PPP must take these learnings and embed them as best as possible in the contractual mechanisms from project outset. In practice, this means: 

• embedding data requirements at financial close, not as a retrofit near expiry;
• contracting for flexibility and variation agility (so assets can evolve with services); and
• embedding mechanisms for closer collaboration, as seen with the Mutual Investment Model (MIM).

Enhanced data management technology compared to when the current tranche of PFI contracts were drafted should be taken advantage of. Provision of detailed asset condition information is significantly less arduous than 15-30 years ago. Condition monitoring, defect analytics, lifecycle forecasting and contractual performance dashboards should be largely standardised, updated on a weekly or monthly basis, and accessible to all parties in live format. 

Having this single evidence base across all parties will enable contracting authorities to be effective and efficient when it comes to expiry – but only if they treat data health as a core asset, with formal contract assessments running several years pre-expiry (this cannot start early enough ahead of expiry). This will prevent the re-emergence of historical issues at the point of handback and begin to resolve some of the corporate memory issues noted above. 

What next?  

Expiry is complex and results in a wide range of experiences. This can end with success, such as shown at the Operational PPP Awards, but also to relationship breakdown between all parties (as shown in news articles and general public reputation). 

Key questions that must be answered in a future model of PPP include:

• How can post-PPP phases be better designed during original contract drafting and negotiation to support effective handback?
• How can modern technology be used to ensure data and reporting structures are embedded into governance and decision making more effectively than under PFI?
• What can be put in place to ensure corporate memory is maintained across a long-term contract, when personnel changes are inevitable?   

We look forward to seeing how these models develop across the coming years, hopefully leading to success stories such as those at the OPPPS Awards, with a healthy partnership culture and genuine operational achievements becoming commonplace across all PPP projects. 

For further information about handback management, data and reporting, and knowledge transfer, please contact Nick Moseley and Ollie Fyfe.