Leading the way
4ps, local government's project delivery specialist, works in partnership with DEFRA and Partnerships UK to form the Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme.
Waste management is recognised as a key local government service. However, as the costs of delivering waste services continue to increase, local authorities also face considerable pressure to meet EU Landfill Directive targets. The directive sets out targets to reduce the amount of biodegradable waste sent to landfill to 75 per cent of the 1995 level by 2010, 50 per cent of the 1995 level by 2013 and 35 per cent of the 1995 level by 2020. Authorities who do not meet their individual targets will be fined.{mosimage}
It is estimated that local authority spending on waste collection and disposal will grow from £2.6 billion now to £4.6
billion by 2013. In addition, the cost of building sustainable solutions to landfill adds to the financial pressures facing local authorities. Local authorities play a crucial role in meeting the challenge of delivering more environmentally sustainable waste management practices. To be successful in managing rising volumes of household waste and to reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill as well as meeting the legally binding EU targets, it is vital that value for money is achieved from existing sources of funding and costs are contained or reduced through investment and effective management.
Furthermore, delivering excellent waste services for residents requires local authorities to meet higher transport and labour costs as well as engage more effectively with communities. It is therefore important that waste authorities have clear long term strategies for delivering their future services.
The Waste Infrastructure Delivery Programme (WIDP) helps authorities meet their targets by aiming to accurately forecast the scale of residual waste treatment infrastructure required to meet the landfill Directive targets in 2010, 2013 and by encouraging local authorities to accelerate the building of residual waste infrastructure, without compromising local authority efforts to minimise waste and increase recycling targets.
As part of the WIDP partnership, 4ps supports the delivery of local waste services through the development of waste management infrastructure. 4ps' role is to primarily support local authorities in planning for and delivering good procurement. This involves engaging in key sector issues, which are essential to ensuring projects are delivered and the sector is developed.
WIDP provides expert support to local authorities, through 4ps and Partnerships UK, on a range of issues from project scoping, procurement strategy, planning, community engagement through to negotiation, delivery of the project and the operational phase. As part of WIDP, 4ps provides experienced transactors to support project teams through the procurement process to add hands-on assistance through their commercial skills, such as legal and financial advisory expertise. In addition other 4ps services, such as the provision of Gateway reviews and Project Team Training, offer support for local authorities throughout the project lifecycle, all of which aim to strengthen local authorities' ability and
resources to achieve the very challenging targets set by the EU Landfill Directive.
Public Private Partnerships can also play an important role in helping authorities deliver effective waste management. PPP/PFI is arguably particularly suited to the waste sector because it enables significant risk to be transferred from the council to the private sector. It also enables the development of new technology solutions that many local authorities are not equipped to deal with. It is currently a busy period for the Waste PFI sector and since May 2006,
DEFRA has approved PFI Credit funding for eleven waste PFI schemes (which are now in procurement) and there remains a strong pipeline of projects currently engaged in the application for PFI Credits. The intensification of the credit crunch in recent weeks is, however, leading to greater challenges for all sectors of the economy that rely on private finance, including the PFI/PPP sector.
This credit crunch has had an adverse impact on PPP/PFI projects approaching financial close and increased concern for those at the earlier stages of development and procurement. 4ps considers that the many advantages of Public Private Partnerships remain, however, it is increasingly important that those local authorities engaged on projects involving project finance monitor developments closely and ensure, where necessary, they develop and implement appropriate risk mitigation strategies.
Choosing the PPP/PFI route can add rigour to the procurement process. 4ps supports local authorities throughout this
process to ensure a detailed and robust options appraisal is carried out to properly inform the Outline Business Case
thus ensuring authorities identify the most appropriate value for money solution. 4ps, as a partner to WIDP, is committed to helping local authorities to deliver efficiency gains on waste, mainly by more effective joint working, promoting best practice, and standardisation of procurement operations.
