One of deputy prime minister John Prescott’s flagship private finance initiative (PFI) schemes to renovate council homes has fallen through. Costs at the 712 home Chalots estate in Camden, north London, chosen in 1999 as one of eight pathfinder projects to test the PFI, have run out of control and Treasury officials are refusing to fund it. Camden council had already spent £1.6 million on the scheme. Doubts are now being raised about whether the PFI remains a serious option for repairing inner city council homes. Costs at Camden’s PFI project had increased from an initial estimate of £55 million to £120 million. Only three of the eight PFI pathfinder projects selected in 1999 have formerly signed PFI contracts so far.