Education ministers are planning to build a new wave of around 100 schools under the private finance initiative, while counterparts in the Department of Health (DH) are considering paying multi-million pound lump sums to help PFI hospitals achieve foundation trust status.

A report in today's Financial Times states Treasury chiefs are considering plans to open up to 20 schools in 2014/15, as a precursor to the roll-out of a larger national programme.Despite this increased activity, the Department for Education (DfE) is expected to announce the abolition of Partnership for Schools (PfS)the arm's length body responsible for schools PFI schemes.