§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport, Local Government and the Regions when he will announce the outcome of the round of applications for PFI credits for additional social housing and joint service centres. [56905]
§ Mr. RaynsfordI am announcing today the names of 10 local authorities with whom my Department will work on the development of PFI schemes. There will be five schemes providing additional social housing and five for joint service centres.
The authorities proposing the housing schemes are: Birmingham city council, London borough of Brent, London borough of Harrow, Slough borough council and Warrington borough council.
These schemes aim to provide additional social housing. They will help to increase the supply of affordable housing, help regenerate areas of low demand or provide housing for vulnerable groups.
The authorities seeking support for joint service centres are: Leeds city council, Manchester city council, Newcastle city council, North Tyneside council and Shropshire.
The purpose of these schemes is to give local communities improved access to a wide range of information and services and to integrate the information and services to be provided by the local authority with other local agencies.
We were impressed with the quality of all the bids received and it was a difficult choice as to which schemes were selected.
I congratulate those authorities which were successful in this round. We look forward to working with them to fully develop these bids into value for money projects.
Whether any of the above schemes ultimately proceed will depend on authorities working up business cases which satisfy the scrutiny of the interdepartmental project review group (PRG), which considers all local government PFI schemes seeking central Government support. Endorsement by PRG is essential before schemes can be put out to tender.
The total value of the PFI credits that will be allocated, if all these schemes are endorsed and proceed to contract signature, is £100 million.