17 October 2003
Lift, the public-private partnership model developed by the NHS to meet the building needs of the primary care sector, also offers a useful procurement option for local government, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said this week.
Addressing a conference jointly hosted by the 4Ps and Partnerships for Health this week, local government minister Phil Hope said Lift provided a long-term PPP free from the high costs incurred every time a new building was needed and without the problems small-scale projects have under the Private Finance Initiative.
'Perhaps more importantly, it offers a framework within which local authority and health needs can be co-ordinated and the two sectors come closer together, to look at strategies as well as acquiring much needed new or refurbished premises,' he said.
Under the Lift model, local agencies join with a private sector partner to form a company, which takes on long-term responsibility for improving the primary care infrastructure.
Hope said that six of the 14 projects in the ODPM's £135m 'pathfinder' PFI joint service centre programme intended to use Lift.
But the public sector union Unison criticised Lift as a 'genetically modified form of PFI'. A spokeswoman told Public Finance: 'We are seeking a greater range of options [for local authorities] and more emphasis on traditional procurement methods.'
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