Procurement Negotiations Will Continue Despite Loss Of PFI Credits

2 November 2010

The South London Waste Partnership has announced that it will continue with its existing procurement negotiations for new waste treatment facilities, despite the withdrawal of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) funding. The Partnership says it remains well placed to procure a value-for-money solution to the challenge of diverting 200,000 tonnes of waste away from landfill.

On 21 October, Defra announced that PFI credits were being revoked from seven waste infrastructure projects, including the South London Waste Partnership. Although the Partnership was disappointed by this decision it says that PFI funding was an option for the Partnership and not something it was entirely reliant on.

It said: “A negotiation team has been working hard with bidders over the last 14 months to ensure that the proposals being developed for new waste treatment facilities are affordable and provide best value, even without PFI credits. The withdrawal of PFI funding does potentially allow for a more flexible contract structure. The Partnership now intends to use this additional commercial freedom to its advantage and seek to secure even better value for money from the three bidders that remain in the competitive dialogue process.”

Alongside this the Partnerships has questioned why, despite the withdrawal of PFI funding, no plans to relax the challenging landfill reduction targets, and associated increases in landfill tax have been announced.

Gemma Howard