§ Ms Rosie WintertonTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he expects to announce the preferred bidder for the private finance initiative contract for the British embassy in Berlin; and if he will make a statement. [12278]
§ Mr. FatchettThe Department has selected Bebcon, a consortium of prominent German contractors and financiers, as the preferred bidder for the new British embassy offices in Berlin.
The embassy will be built to a design by Michael Wilford and Partners, winners of the 1995 embassy design competition, on the site of the pre-war British embassy in Wilhelmstrasse. Under the eventual contract, Bebcon will finance, construct and then manage the building for 30 years. Building work will start around the end of this year, and the embassy staff will move into the new building in autumn 1999.
This is the Department's pathfinder private finance initiative overseas estate project. European Union competition procedures and British Government private finance initiative guidance have been followed throughout.