UPON the election of the current administration, the Government were to turn away from PPP/ PFI as a form of procurement. The problem for public building procurement and the construction industry in Scotland is that this movement away from PPP, was combined with the fact that no immediate alternative procurement measures were in place to maintain the momentum of the PPP programme. This has meant that only a relatively small number of major projects have emerged in to the market until relatively recently.

This has changed over the last six months but with an 18 month lull in procurement it is the general opinion of the construction market that the slow down will yet have a profoundly negative impact when combined with the “credit crunch” effect over the coming year.

In a much more positive vein, regional schools frameworks the likes of South Lanarkshire Primary Schools Framework, North Lanarkshire Schools and Centres 21 Framework and The Western Isle Schools Project have been patiently going about their business and similarly the NHS Scotland Preferred Supply Chain Partner Framework is now really beginning to pick up momentum.

While most of the current forms of procurement do have Whole Life Cycle Planning, maintenance and sustainability as an inherent part of their process, it is yet to be seen whether or not they will be as effective at building and maintaining themselves as their PFI / PPP counterpart seems to be proving.

We would all welcome some intensive analysis and evaluation to conclusively prove this one way or another, so that we can all move on in an informed manner.

Love it or loathe it, PPP did have more about the future built in as standard. As for traditionally procurement it is still often the case that the financial burden of looking after a facility could bizarrely be its own downfall - built and then left out in the rain and in some cases never to get off the ground because the money to maintain could not be planned for. PPPs have never enjoyed particularly favourable press largely down to the fact that they seem complicated and drawn out. Our experience of PFI / PPP is positive, having had been involved with PFI and PPP on the ground and being architects not seeking to become involved in what sometimes seems ill informed political debate we can only view PPP as a thoroughly comprehensive and extremely competent way for the public sector to procure projects that they cannot afford to procure and fund solely from their Capital spending programme.

As designers, one significant reason that projects, such as PFI projects with FM at their heart, are interesting and indeed rewarding, has to be that they make people want to look after their facilities. This is done without the need of having to worry about where the money to maintain will come from. It is a fact that particularly when it comes to our schools and health facilities, maintenance budgets very often fall prey to our apparent inability to effectively structure programmed maintenance over protracted periods of time.

PPP is no more than a procurement process and is in essence not affected by “local” changes in governance. With term periods running in tens of years it is less prone to political changes or focus.

In short when designing and advising in the PPP environment you could be reasonably sure that what you had spent time developing from a sustainability and long term maintenance stand point would actually be delivered on the ground.

Future procurement
At 3DReid we have no favourite form of procurement, but as we stand at the portal leading in to the post PPP era, we maintain that it is imperative that the favoured forms of procurement focus just as keenly on sustainability, planned maintenance and whole life cycle planning and ensure that the financial measures are put in place to protect the futures for our valuable public assets.

With apparently little or no market confidence in the Scottish Futures Trust and no significant Capital funds available, the Scottish Government have had to work very hard to re-energise the health and education markets.

NHS Scotland Preferred Supply Chain
Partner Framework augmented by key strategic projects looks to have set course on a mission that will provide much needed health facilities for the public as well as valuable opportunities for Scotland’s beleaguered construction industry.

Announcements upon the full scope of the HUB initiative and Schools Estates Strategy are imminent and we await their direction with anticipation.

Who knows maybe even PFI may live to see the light of day as a more attractive investment than its NPDO counterpart. Rumours on the issue of the Governments softening stance on the refinancing structures that would make NPDO more
attractive to Finance institutions remain rife.

Only time will tell and one thing for sure is that public building needs to get a move on and the government, as always, will need to listen and react to what the market really wants.

3DReid are in involved in the process of completing six new secondary schools for Scottish Borders Council delivered by Bilfinger Berger with Graham Construction and Clackmannanshire Council delivered by Bilfinger Berger with Ogilvie construction respectively.