§ Mr. BrazierTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will list the actions being taken by his Ministry to meet the aims of the private finance initiative.
§ Mr. WaldegraveI have identified two areas where I believe there is scope for attracting private finance.
My officials, assisted by those of Property Holdings, are developing schemes for a new office building at Crewe and either a redevelopment of our present offices at Northallerton or a new building there. If these are successful the schemes will be taken forward under the private finance initiative with the private sector funding 628W the projects and bearing any land acquisition, design, construction and ownership risks. On completion the Ministry will take leases on the new buildings based on partial or full occupancy.
Officials are also examining, with Property Holdings, the scope for using private finance to refurbish our increasingly aged Whitehall buildings. Expenditure is likely to be some years off because of the complexity of the scheme. Suitable temporary accommodation will need to be found for some of the staff whilst work is in progress. We would expect the provision of temporary accommodation to be part of the private finance package. Detailed costings are not available but the whole scheme is likely to be in the tens of millions of pounds range.
My Ministry will continue to require authorities responsible for flood defence and coast protection schemes to obtain private sector contributions towards the cost of capital works needed to facilitate current or future developments, and will strongly encourage authorities to do so where defences provide a particular direct benefit to a business.