Lead Headline: Czech mate
Accession in to the EU is an excellent chance for both Prague and the Czech Republic in general and the initial state of affairs for the city is not bad. Prague is situated in an advantageous position in the centre of Europe and has high economic potential. Moreover, virtually all the key central au...

Lead Headline: Key ingredients
Richard Weston was last interviewed in the PFI Intelligence Bulletin in April 2003 and since then Equion has gone from strength to strength. It now has 19 ‘live’ projects and is preferred bidder for a further 14 with a substantial number at the short-list phase. As a result, Equion has grown from a ...

Lead Headline: Setting the standard
High speed ambitions will be derailed without the private sector. European high speed rail projects will require significant PPP investment if they are to meet the ambitious targets set for them. Robert Bain, transport analyst at Standard & Poor’s, assesses the risks. European governments and the E...

Lead Headline: Wasting away
Ask most people whether we should recycle more and landfill less, and the answer is like to be an emphatic ‘yes’. Ask them whether they are happy to pay more, and you're likely to receive a different answer. But given that the UK pays less for waste management than most other EU Member States, and...

Lead Headline: Reach for the stars
When comparing the defence sector in PFI to other areas such as health or education it may appear that the scheme's use is far less prevalent. However when it is used, the value of the projects are on a much larger scale. The Skynet 5 PFI project is worth a staggering £2.5bn and even then is still ...

Lead Headline: Tough at the top?
Studies published recently provide the first comprehensive evidence on the performance of PFI in the UK. The main message that emerges from IFSL’s report PFI in the UK: Progress and Performance is that while there have been major benefits from new PFI facilities, UK policy should continue to be shap...

Lead Headline: Jarvis rings in changes
Jarvis has confirmed that Paris Moayedi would be paid around £400,000 as part of his compensation package, but he denied that his departure had anything to do with the recent troubles the company has faced. Commenting on his resignation, Moayedi said: “This handover is now complete and I do not desi...

Lead Headline: Healthy dose of PFI
Nearly seven years after its introduction, PFI is back in the spotlight and not for all good reasons. This month has seen Jarvis pull out of all of its rail maintenance projects, Ballast being placed up for sale due to debts and the two tier workforce receiving increasing criticism from trade unions...

Lead Headline: IPPR report calls for two-tier reform
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has published a report warning that the two-tier labour market needs to be eradicated quickly in order to prevent further stalling to PPPs. Although the report, by Paul Maltby and Tim Gosling, concedes that solutions have been found for a number of lo...

Lead Headline: Unison deal collapses at party conference
The last-minute deal between Tony Blair and Unison over foundation hospitals has collapsed at the Labour Party Conference, held in Bournmouth. The Unison general secretary, David Prentis, has accused Blair of breaking a pledge to protect the employment conditions of workers in privatised services. ...

Lead Headline: Insurance – a necessary evil
Mark Courtneidge, director at Aon, talks about why insurance shouldn’t be seen as the ‘unwelcome guest’ at PFI negotiations So just how far down the agenda are the insurances for your PFI Project? It is one of the necessary evils on all projects but may still barely get a mention until Preferred Bi...

Lead Headline: PFI and prisons - a view from the inside
The prison sector is generally regarded as one of the most successful among those where PFI is being used as a procurement route. One of the factors that distinguishes it is the extent of the service provision undertaken by the private sector, which is greater than in other sectors; another is the s...

Lead Headline: Taking flight
Q. What is the Conservative’s overall position on PFI and PPP? A. We started PFI and remain fully supportive of it in principle. Since WWII no public sector project has been delivered either on time or on budget. Whereas PFI delivers the facilities and services on time and more efficiently this is ...

Lead Headline: MoD shake-up good news for PFI
The Ministry of Defence has began the most fundemental shake-up for more than 100-years with a flux of PFI deals. There are strong indications that a major shift is underway changing the ministry from a ‘decider and provider’ of logistic support and more of an ‘intelligent decider’ that may contra...

Lead Headline: Government boost for social housing
An increase in social housing PFI projects is on the horizon following several moves by the government to make the sector more accessible for private companies. Gordon Brown’s Sustainable Communities: Building for the Future plan promises £685m in PFI funding to refurbish local authority housing wh...

Lead Headline: Audit Commission findings rejected
A recent report by the Audit Commission on school PFIs has been dismissed as "old news" by the government. The study, comparing 17 PFI funded and 12 traditionally funded schools, says that although all schools fell below 'best practice' in terms of space, heating, lighting and acoustics, t...

Lead Headline: Private sector remains defiant in face of union pressure
The private sector's reaction to the hostility shown at the Labour Party conference will have little or no impact on the development of PFI according to the private sector. Whilst confidence is shaky at the moment, with Amey's problems the latest to trouble the market, the call for a review of all o...

Lead Headline: A PUK for Ireland?
Reg McCabe, head of PPPs at Irish business federation IBEC, has said Partnerships UK could provide a good model for infrastructure delivery in Ireland. The government is currently drawing-up plans for a wholly state-owned version, the National Development Finance Agency, but so far the idea has been...

Lead Headline: Contractors fall back as bid costs rise
Ongoing delays to projects and rising bid costs are exposing very real private sector concerns over future involvement on pathfinder PFI projects according to leading figures in the market. The hold-ups, which are currently hindering projects such as the Tube, Allenby/Connaught accommodation, Colche...

Lead Headline: Private sector backs PSC attack
Jeremy Colman's comments about the public sector comparator have been supported by the private sector. At a National Audit Office conference in June, the Assistant Auditor General was highly critical of the PSC at a recent conference, labelling some calculations as "pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumb...

Lead Headline: Lack of SPV evolution holding up PFI market
Dr. Tim Stone, chairman of KPMG's PFI business, has claimed the development of the equity market for PFI is being held up by the failure of SPVs to grow into service companies in their own right. Speaking following the launch of a new secondary fund by Abbey National and Babcock & Brown, Stone welco...

Lead Headline: No government support for PFI
John Edmonds has attempted to scare the PFI/PPP community into submission, with suggestions that there is no support for the initiative from the government. In a frank interview with PFI Intelligence Bulletin, Edmonds made clear his belief that behind closed doors senior members of government are cu...

Lead Headline: “No market” in Netherlands, declares international banker
A managing director of a leading investment bank has stated there is "no real market" in the Netherlands for public-private partnerships. Peter Valk, head of the infrastructure department at ING Bank, told PFI Intelligence Bulletin he believes it will take years before the country gains sufficient ...