The UK private finance initiative and Glasgow schools

This paper considers the extent to which a facilities management (FM) approach has been applied in delivery of a secondary school development programme for Glasgow City Council. The approach involves purchase of service from a private consortium which will build, own, maintain and operate facilities using the private finance initative (PFI) version of the range of public‐private (PPPs) to provide a share of UK public sector infrastructure. The paper describes influences upon the form and content of the £400m Glasgow project including how mainstream FM principles have been employed to deliver a system which meets client, user and supplier requirements. Considers the extent to which experience can be informed by conventional theory of public choice and how other innovations, designed to bring business methods into local government, including compulsory competitive tendering and best value, impact on the arrangements involved in the schools project.