NEW schools, leisure and sports facilities, transport projects, waste infrastructure, housing – the pressures on local authorities to meet basic local needs, not to mention making our neighbourhoods more pleasant places to live, is increasing.
Step forward 4ps – the public private partnerships programme – the local government procurement agency set up to help local authorities work with the private and now the third sector. This is a challenge for which some councils are better equipped than others.
“There are about 400 local authorities, varying from the very strong – such as Leeds, which has a fully fledged, procurement department in-house – to small district councils which are still going to be procuring major PPP [public private partnerships] and PFI [private finance initiative] projects, building schools, setting up shared services projects, setting up waste management facilities, but don’t have the capability in-house to deliver it,” says Chris Wilson, the executive director of 4ps. 4ps plays a unique role in ensuring that local authorities have the expertise and skills required to plan, procure, deliver and then manage PPP and PFI projects day to day, Wilson says. As well as offering training to local government officers and councillors, it promotes best practice through gateway reviews and annual awards, and offers hands-on help to local teams.
“We have our own expert transactors – who tend to be lawyers, accountants and technical people such as architects – that we can put into local authorities and provide them with a package of support over the lifetime of the projects.”
Closely affiliated to the Local Government Association, half of the agency’s funding comes straight from the regional support grant paid to councils by central government and it offers most of its services free. “We are essentially a local government-owned company, so that gives us a position of independence and trust. It’s very rare that local authorities won’t want to work with us,” he says.
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The Government has committed £11 billion to PFI deals over the next three years and “there’s certainly another £10 billion-plus going into PPPs overall”, Wilson says. The market has moved on in the 11 years since 4ps was created. “It’s really gone from a project base to this issue of a much wider strategic partnership.”
Local authorities are now expected to commission services from private and third sector organisations, including social enterprises and smaller local firms. The private sector is keen to get involved, lured by the prospect of government contracts guaranteed over many years through long-term programmes such as Building Schools for the Future. “[The private sector has] an obligation as well as the public sector, and that obligation is to be willing to invest in community regeneration; willing to take a long-term view and not to just look where the next deal is coming from; and willing to work in a multiplicity of providers.”
But even masterfully managed PPPs won’t be enough to bail out cash-strapped authorities in a double bind: asked to fund the rising demand for adult social services, for example, and yet make efficiency savings. Ever greater professionalism in programme and project management, and a second look at how local authorities manage their property assets will help to make ends meet. Beyond that, council taxpayers may just have to cough up. As Wilson says: “If, for example, people want their bins collected more often, is there a case for having differentiated pricing regimes? It’s perfectly legitimate in other service areas so isn’t it something that we should be considering here?”
Born: 1954, in Ilkley, Yorkshire
Career: MA (Hons) University of Oxford, 1977; Blue Circle Industries, 1979-86; MBA, Bradford Business School, 1987; management consultant, Price Waterhouse, 1988-95; strategy and acquisitions manager, Powergen, 1995-99; managing director, AEP, 1999-2002; appointed executive director at Public Private Partnerships Programme (4ps) in 2002
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What he says: “The best local authorities are the best and most efficient procurers and service providers in the sector.”
Little-known fact: Experienced the calm at the eye of Hurricane Charley as it roared into Port Charlotte, Florida, on August 13, 2004.