George Osborne orders £5bn of Whitehall cuts to fund schools and roads Mr Osborne is under pressure to boost growth with a raft of major new construction projects, after the UK headed back into recession this year. Under his new plans, the Chancellor wants to build more infrastructure by breathing new life into private finance initiatives (PFI) - a Labour government programme that raised money for public projects from businesses. In opposition, Mr Osborne described PFI as "discredited" because many schemes were found to be poor value for money and left some hospitals near bankruptcy. However, the Chancellor has re-designed the scheme as PF2 to offer better value for the taxpayer, with safeguards to make sure companies involved are forced to disclose their profits. John Longworth, the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said Britain needs a "massive infrastructure investment." "If PF2 is the Chancellor's answer to de-risking private investment in infrastructure development that will be a good thing," he said. We have called for new ways of financing infrastructure because we believe massive infrastructure investment is so important to the UK and also for business confidence.