7. Development path
7.1 Recognising these constraints and the lead times involved in setting up any new investment vehicle, the Government views the SFT initiative as a development path moving from the present position in a series of stages to the realisation of all of our objectives, rather than a big bang approach.
7.2 The Government's starting point along this path has been a pragmatic one. It has taken action to protect those investments which were planned and put in place by the previous administration excepting only those few which quite simply did not meet the policies and priorities on which it was elected. The logic behind this approach is that these procurements are already expensive without the costs of re-starting, the delays that would be involved in completing the projects and, flowing from the delays, the reduction in buying power caused by the impact of construction inflation. That means that the "mixed economy" of delivery methods used by the previous administration has inevitably run on. But this does not mean that delivery options will be left as before.
7.3 The Government has now moved into the second phase of the development path. For all new projects where the value for money assessment of a project or programme suggests that the use of private sector finance and delivery expertise combined with risk transfer, would be beneficial, the Non-Profit Distributing * ( NPD) model will be used. NPD has already been extended from schools into the health sector and its use is expected to be extended to other sectors. The scope for uncapped investor returns as in the "standard PFI" has been discontinued and will only be considered in rare circumstances where the risks involved in a project are exceptionally high.