Public Private Partnerships: a Licence to Print Money or Value for Money?

It is often considered that a Public Private Partnership (PPP) is a licence to print money for the private entity and that the state receives a price which does reflect the value of the underlying public asset. This paper explores key concepts that underpin and define the nature of PPPs and how such partnerships have emerged and evolved as a means of project funding. The relationship between the underlying asset and the ownership of the derived benefit from the consumption of the public asset is explored to illustrate how the same asset can represent different values