FMcompanies to increase services to public sector

Private facilities management companies are likely to become more directly involved in providing services to the public sector, according to a new study.

The latest report on procurement practice from Building Maintenance Information found that 72 per cent of health authority and 53 per cent of university work is still being done by Direct Labour Organisations but this now seems set to change.

"The work in these areas is likely to be taken over in the coming years by companies specialising in facilities management," said a spokesman for the Building Cost Information Service.

The survey also found a steady movement toward tendering in both public and private sector construction work over the past eight years as a result of the implementation of compulsory competitive tendering.

At the time of the 1991 BMI report, DLOs were doing much of the public sector work. With CCT some 98 per cent of local authority contracts are now measured term. In the private sector measured term and lump sum contracts accounted for most of the work.