15 September 2000
Owain Ellis, project director for Partnerships UK (PUK), said that wider markets had suffered from a 'logjam' but that prospects were much brighter now that departments can keep receipts.
'There are lots of people thinking about it – it's a bit like the early days of the Private Finance Initiative. We have got to make sure we get the good deals, the pearls rather than the flotsam and jetsam,' he told the seminar organised by consultants Vantagepoint.
Wider markets was launched in the summer of 1998 with the aim of making use of public sector assets or spare capacity in collaboration with private companies. Partnerships UK, the successor body to the Treasury Taskforce on PFI, will now be supporting the programme.
Chris Doutney, principal consultant at Vantagepoint, said that wider markets had taken a while to catch on. 'The civil service procurement process is not the world's speediest, and you also need champions within the organisation,' he said.
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