The latest round of applications for housing private finance initiatives in 2005/6 will exceed the total cash made available by the ODPM.

With figures available for nine of the 11 council bidders, total bids stand at 拢649.2m 鈥� already exceeding the 拢610m pot for the latest round.

The non-housing revenue account PFI bids came from Birmingham (拢54m); Guildford (拢40m); Islington (鈥渕ore than 拢100m鈥�) ; Medway (拢8.2m); Weymouth & Portland (拢36m); and Woking (拢43m).

PFI housing revenue account bids came from Leeds (about 拢100m); Oldham (拢90m); and Salford (拢178m). Broadly speaking, housing revenue account PFI relates to refurbishment and non-housing revenue account PFI to new-build schemes.

Although Lewisham and Manchester have 鈥渆xpressed interest鈥� in the latest round of bidding, there are no details available about the size of their bids.

Graham Moody, managing director of consultant GMA, said: 鈥淭he ODPM may weed out some councils by saying they鈥檙e not ready yet because procurement will take too long.鈥�

Source

Housing Today