The 'Private Finance Initiative' got under way in the United Kingdom in 1992 and it has become a widely used purchasing method for the government there. In PFI projects, the private company arranges the financing themselves for constructing a school, for example, after which performance-related payments are made by the government for the specified maintance and often operation of that school.
In this form of PPP, DBFM (Design, Build, Finance & Maintain) or DBFO (Design, Build, Finance & Operate) contracts are used. In these types of contracts, the financing is handled by the private sector, but this should not be confused with privatisation. This is because the government retains the final responsibility; the only tasks delegated to the market are those for carrying out the work for the accommodation. The government remains the client and the owner. This principle is applied to the entire spectrum of market sectors, varying from complex infrastructure to small-scale education. Since 1999, a small number of this type of DBFM and DBFO projects have been put on the market in The Netherlands.
Public private partnership structures do not relieve the government of its responsibilities. What does become more important is that it has to specify its requirements for the facililty and services in good time. The private parties tendering are then asked to offer an integrated package for th provision of these services. The government retains responsibility for overall control, but delegates the actual work at an early stage.