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Dept of the Environment Transport and the Regions

Answer

Mr. Cohen: To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his answer to the hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington (Mr. Brake), of 21 December 1999, Official Report, column 524W, what comparators he used to calculate the PPP infrastructure companies' estimated efficiency improvement of 20 per cent. [111592] Mr. Hill: The briefing note PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) published in December 1999 assumed that under the Public Private Partnership for London Underground the private sector infrastructure companies will bring efficiency improvements of 20 per cent. The PwC note, which has been placed in the House Library, sets out the basis for assuming this level of efficiency savings, which is in line with the experience of other industries where the financing and management of infrastructure programmes has been transferred to the private sector. Since the PwC briefing note was published, Arthur Andersen and the London School of Economics have completed a report for the Treasury Taskforce called "Value for Money Drivers in the Private Finance Initiative". This shows the PFIs of all types are, on average, delivering efficiency savings of 17 per cent.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

345 c331-2W; 111592

Session

1999-00

Subjects

Finance London Underground Public private partnerships Standards Underground railways PwC