黑洞社区

The Major Contractors Group and CABE are collaborating on measures to reduce design costs in PFI contracts, writes Angela Monaghan.

Despite clashing over PFI schemes in the past, representatives from the two groups set their differences aside when they met last week to thrash out ideas on lowering PFI bidding costs while producing well-designed buildings.

Bid costs for shortlisted contractors on recent hospital schemes are said have been about 拢8-10m. According to Stephen Ratcliffe, director of the MCG, much of that bill is the result of 鈥渁n awful lot of wasted design鈥�.

Richard Simmons, CABE chief executive, said the design watchdog wanted to ensure that PFI as a procurement route did not preclude good design.

Both men said that talks were at an early stage, but that further meetings were expected.

The MCG wants to improve the early stages of the design and bidding process and reduce costs at the outset, thus encouraging more bidders and a more competitive process.

According to Ratcliffe, the MCG would only lobby the government to pay bid costs for unsuccessful shortlisted parties as 鈥渁 last resort鈥�.

The biggest problem is that NHS trusts always want something that they cannot afford

Stephen Ratcliffe, MCG director

He said: 鈥淭he biggest problem area is that NHS trusts always want something that they cannot afford.鈥� He argued that this meant shortlisted contractors were forced to pay for design work they knew would never come to fruition.

Ratcliffe said that CABE鈥檚 input in assessing hospital designs should come right at the start of the process and be standardised for all projects.

鈥淲e welcome CABE鈥檚 involvement. Our complaint in the past was that CABE didn鈥檛 get involved at the outset because it did not have the resources,鈥� he said, citing the Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth, where CABE did not assess the project until the planning stage and criticised the design. As a result, contractor Carillion was forced to make modifications, causing delays and cost rises.

At the Royal London Hospital in east London, the NHS trust consulted CABE at the outset. However, a different team looked at the design at the planning stage and rejected it. 鈥淭here needs to be a protocol for how and when they get involved,鈥� said Ratcliffe.

In the event of design changes at the later stages of a project, or if a change in government policy affected a scheme, the government should compensate the preferred bidder, said Ratcliffe.