THE plan for councils to ‘help’ Oxford University Hospitals’ Trust out of its burdensome £53m a year debt repayment incurred under the Private Finance Initiative is an intriguing one.

But it is not as straightforward as it is being portrayed.

PFI was used to build developments such as the Oxford Children’s Hospital and the Oxford Cancer Centre.

It may be trendy to boo from the sidelines at PFI because of the debt it has saddled the NHS with.

But if it was not for private investment these two exceptional health facilities would not be there to treat your loved ones today.

It is true the OUH trust has an eye-watering sum to pay each year as part of the PFI agreement.

However we can’t now just decide, with the new toys in hand, that we don’t like the prospect of continuing to pay the ongoing bill.

On the surface the councils paying off sections of the PFI debt and then striking a financially more bearable deal with the trust is a winner for the taxpayer.

Yet the moneymen behind the PFI invested because they expected a certain return. It wasn’t charity and it is naive to think it was ever down to altruism.

If we seek to end these deals early, we may find those same investors understandably far more reluctant next time around to fund any future state infrastructure.