BEaR Project EOI 2008
As the responsible party for the delivery of future large scale waste treatment facilities in Bedfordshire, the County Council believe that it is prudent for all financial options to be considered.
One such funding option for the project is Private Finance Initiative (PFI). PFI is one of the main mechanisms through which local authorities can procure assets in a value for money way in partnership with the private sector. It is a procurement methodology for asset-based services. Long term fixed price contracts are entered into with private sector contractors to deliver services to specified performance standards.
The Department for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) believe that waste PFI schemes will help the UK meet EU Landfill Directive diversion and recycling targets. It is for this reason that DEFRA was given a further £2 billion of funding through PFI credits in the 2007 Comprehensive Spending Review which will be available to help local authorities invest in sustainable waste management options.
On the 4th March 2008 Bedfordshire County Councils Executive Committee agreed to submit an ‘Expression of Interest’ (EOI) to DEFRA in a bid for PFI funding. The EOI document is a general overview of the waste project proposed by the Council and provides information to DEFRA to enable them to judge whether the project should be allocated funding.
Following approval by the Leadership Team the EOI was submitted to DEFRA on the 31st March 2008 and is currently being assessed by DEFRA's Waste Infrastructure Development Team (WIDP). The document and its appendices are available to download below. Please note that a small amount of the document content has been removed and is exempt from the Freedom of Information Act 2000 due to a number of sensitivities.
By submitting an EOI, Bedfordshire in no way ties itself in to the PFI funding route. All funding options will be considered as part of ongoing modelling works for the project. The next stage of the PFI bid process is the Outline Business Case (OBC) which is currently being developed by the Project Team and its advisers. The OBC is similar to the EOI, however it provides much more detail on how the project will be delivered in the wider context of the waste service and therefore details waste minimisation and recycling goals.