PFI reform set for September

The Treasury’s review of PFI will not be fully detailed until after the summer recess, Partnerships Bulletin understands.

Although Treasury officials have been working to get a response to the call for evidence published by 17 July, when Parliament breaks for the summer, Infrastructure UK chief executive Geoffrey Spence is planning to outline the new model in September.

However, no date has officially been set for the Treasury’s response to the call for evidence, or the publication of any new model.

The new PFI model will focus on greater incentives to bring institutional investors such as pension funds into the infrastructure investment arena.

Sources suggest work is currently ongoing to see whether banks will fund the more risky construction period and then partner with insurance companies who will take the longer term operational debt.

It is also understood that the Treasury is in the process of identifying suitable schemes to pilot the new model, which could include new hospital projects in the early stage of procurement, such as the proposed Hartlepool hospital PFI.

That would also fit with the timing for the Priority Schools Building Programme, which is expected to launch the OJEU for its first tranche of PFI schemes in the autumn.