PFI announcement ‘in October’

According to the Financial Times, the Treasury will make an announcement on its relaunch of the PFI model next month and Chancellor George Osborne will detail projects to be fast-tracked through PFI in his Autumn Statement on 5 December.

However, a Treasury spokesperson refused to confirm the October date, saying simply that details would be set out “in the coming months”.

The review is unlikely to result in wholesale changes to the PFI model, but soft facilities management services will be stripped out of future contracts.

It is expected the first projects to be put through the new model will be schemes under the Priority School Building Programme. Partnerships Bulletin reported in December last year that the programme was intending to remove soft services from contracts.

The Financial Times also reported that the government is considering investing some public capital into PFI deals to ensure central government has a role on the board of each project.

The second UK Partnerships event, on 13 December 2012, will explore the future of PFI and announcements made on capital spending during the Autumn Statement. For more information, please email events@pppbulletin.com.