PRIVATE bidders will be invited to run Victoria's new $1 billion cancer centre jointly after the Victorian Government decided to deliver the project as a public-private partnership. Premier John Brumby said the deal would make the project more cost-effective. ''Victoria is a world leader in public-private partnerships,'' he said in a statement yesterday. ''The Royal Children's Hospital and Royal Women's Hospital are prime examples of how we are working with the private sector to deliver first-class hospitals cheaper than would otherwise be possible Join discussion...

Consortium also including John Laing takes multimillion-pound claim over scrapped Leicester scheme to the High Court A consortium including Laing O'Rourke and John Laing has launched a legal battle to reclaim millions of pounds in costs over the scrapped £711m Leicester Hospitals PFI scheme. The Triskelion consortium, which also includes Serco and Portfolio Solutions (Northern Ireland), has lodged a claim in the High Court against the Department of Health and University Hospitals of Leicester National Healthcare. Join discussion...

s much as £2.4bn could be saved if the NHS bought out the private finance contracts signed by the government to build new hospitals, an economic study has claimed. Labour's enthusiasm for public finance initiatives (PFIs) has wasted national reserves and enriched private investors, the report by a University of East Anglia academic alleges. Join discussion...

The acronym soup that is Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and Private Finance Initiative (PFI) should be familiar to readers. They are the way in which many schools, hospitals and prisons have been financed and built since 1992. The government pays a private sector consortium to build, maintain and operate the asset for the long term, as long as pre-agreed service standards are met. Join discussion...

Schemes caught up in the sluggish approvals system include the proposed £160 million redevelopment of Papworth hospital in Cambridgeshire, and projects at Liverpool Alder Hey and Sandwell in the West Midlands. Outline business approval is needed before the procurement process can begin. Join discussion...

More than £1bn of PFI hospital schemes face the axe under new accounting rules, which take effect in April. Major health schemes including ... Join discussion...

The Saskatchewan Party government is setting up a secretariat to explore the possibility of private sector companies being involved in large-scale infrastructure projects such as roads, schools and health-care facilities. Join discussion...

Ottawa wants to build billions of dollars of bridges, hospitals and other infrastructure as a way to lessen the blow from the financial crisis, finance minister Jim Flaherty said Monday. Join discussion...