PROPERTY SERVICES AGENCY (Hansard, 30 October 1989)

§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment (Lord Hesketh)

My right honourable friend the then Secretary of State announced on 25th May 1988 that the Property Services Agency should operate on business lines. Since then good progress has been made and as a result the Government has decided that it will be in the long-term interest of PSA and its staff to privatise its commercial activities as soon as the necessary arrangements can be made, which include the introduction of commercial accounts and the restructuring of its organisation. The earliest practicable date is likely to be in the second half of 1992.

PSA's customers will be fully untied from 1st April 1990 and my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State will be giving PSA some immediate freedom to compete for work in new markets so that it has an opportunity to establish itself in them in advance of privatisation.

The bulk of PSA's activities relate to project management, design services, maintenance of property and estate management services, and these will be the core of the new private organisation. Those of PSA's current activities which are essentially governmental will be retained within the department. These activities include management of the Government's Common User Estate, for which executive agency status will be considered.