The election clock is ticking. Few elections have ever been fought so hard on how little political parties would spend. Yet I am concerned that this “saving” spree will stop some of the country’s most important projects. Schools, hospitals and transport could be among the first casualties.

Boris Johnson has rightly moved to protect the £15 billion Crossrail programme which was endangered because it is big, costly and its benefits will accrue only over many years after a big capital outlay. Exactly the sort of infrastructure the country needs, but politically expedient to cut. Thousands of such projects are either planned or in progress — roads, railway upgrades, sewers, flood defences. These need to be protected from the falling axe. Cutting these would damage the UK’s competitiveness through poor facilities, slower travel, dirtier environment and higher costs.

To safeguard infrastructure development, I urge the next government to make use of the private sector and expand projects through the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). Together with other collaborative methods, such as Public Private Partnerships or asset-backed joint ventures, these enable private sector money and knowhow to build and often run anything from libraries to fire stations.

Naysayers have cherry-picked numbers to create unsubstantiated arguments against PFI. A high-profile research paper called for the Government to abandon PFI as an expensive private sector intrusion into public works. Yet I see only one way that this much investment could be completed without its involvement — expanding the public sector.

The past 20 years have also been littered with delayed, overpriced, defence or government IT projects, none of which involved PFI.

I remember the difference that PFI made in terms of value for money in the 1990s and how it solved another problem — public sector buildings were wearing out and few public bodies were willing to pay the escalating maintenance bills. These projects introduced the guaranteed maintenance of new-build facilities, typically for 25 years. This protected public bodies against the risk of unexpected costs and ensured excellent standards to the public. It is not perfect for every project, but such guarantees are essential when developing infrastructure within a budget.

Since 1997 PFI has delivered more than 100 hospitals, where the private sector has assumed the risk of all repairs and maintenance, at no extra cost. This is a key risk transfer in any public facility and this burden has been lifted from the public sector, in return for a fixed monthly payment. This takes a lot of the uncertainty out of the budgeting and business planning process for public authorities.

Given the huge government deficit, every penny of tax money must be spent wisely to achieve the maximum improvement on our public infrastructure. PFI and similar schemes enable the private sector to deliver great, cost-effective facilities and provide infrastructure which will strengthen the UK economy. If parties discard this tool to seem more vigorous in their spending cuts, they discard a successful method to protect infrastructure development from the aftermath of the recession.

• Tim Care is the partner in charge of the Public Services Practice at Dickinson Dees, the solicitor

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