The Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) had provisionally allocated privatefinance initiative (PFI) credits to North Yorkshire in 2007, but withdrew them as it said the scheme was no longer needed to meet EU waste targets.
But famous examples of maladministration such as the troubled introduction of a new IT system for the National Health Service, chaos in the allocation of rural payments and tax credits, and ill-drafted private-finance initiatives seem to justify concern.