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The Budget 2006 - PFI: strengthening long-term partnerships
In the Chancellor's recent budget speech, he re-affirmed the Government's commitment to PFI. The associated Treasury document 'PFI: strengthening long-term partnerships' sets out the Government's future plans for its PFI investment programme, prioritising the strengthening of partnerships with the private sector for the long term.
This important publication confirms that the Government sees PFI continuing to play a small but important role in the delivery of modernised public services where it represents value for money, setting out the achievements of PFI to date. Taking forward the vision established in 2003's 'PFI: Meeting the Investment Challenge', the new document highlights the steps Government is taking to further strengthen PFI by introducing measures to:
• Make further improvements to the operational performance and flexibility of PFI projects;
• Strengthen the assessment of value for money in PFI projects; and
• Encourage professionalism in public sector PFI procurement;
Some 500 PFI projects are now delivering services, with encouraging results. Recent research conducted by the Treasury and Partnerships UK highlights that around 96% of operational projects are performing satisfactorily or better with 89% of projects delivering services in line with, or better than, those specified in the contract.
The research indicates that, of the 105 cross-sector schemes analysed, 66% were considered to be performing well by the public and private stakeholders, with another 30% deemed satisfactory and only 4% were considered to be performing at a less than satisfactory level.
PFI/PPPs will continue to be central to the UK Government's current and future programmes and initiatives across all sectors, with over 200 projects (with a combined value of £26bn) currently in the pipeline for the next five years, representing around 10-15% of the total investment in public services.
Key PFI areas include:
•Building Schools for the Future - this programme represents over £20bn worth of investment.
•Spring 06 will see a standardisation of waste procurement contracts by Defra. The waste sector is seen as a significant growth area, driven by the Government's commitment to European landfill targets.
There will be many programmes in addition to the ones mentioned above, the successful delivery of which will depend upon communication and collaboration between public and private stakeholders.
The PFI Expo 2006 event has been designed to facilitate debate between key stakeholders across public and private sectors.
EVENT OBJECTIVES
• To evaluate and benchmark current performance of PFI/ PPP projects.
• For all attendees to gain a greater understanding of available resources for all PFI/PPP projects.
• To enable public and private sector stakeholders to engage and inform on all aspects of current standards and recommendations regarding the private finance initiative.
• To give the delivery bodies responsible for 'co-coordinating' PFI projects & policy, a platform to shape a cohesive strategy that encapsulates sustainability, value for money and partnership working.
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