East London names first NHS LIFT winning team

The first preferred bidder for an NHS LIFT scheme has been announced. A consortium that includes Babcock and Brown, Group 4 Falck and Hunter and Partners beat rivals Amey and Miller to become the preferred bidder for the £62.5m East London and City NHS LIFT scheme.

Construction work is valued at £40m in the first phase with a mix of schemes ranging in value from less than £1m to £11m. Work is expected to begin on the scheme early next year.

Costain is tipped to be in pole position for much of the construction work, having helped the consortium to assess construction costs, with the smaller contracts expected to be let to local contractors.

The announcement was made by health minister John Hutton at an NHS LIFT conference last week aimed at encouraging more bidders into the sector.

Partnerships for Health is planning to advertise all 42 NHS LIFT schemes in the OJEC by March next year.

One delegate told Contract Journal: "Partnerships for Health is desperate to attract more bidders because it is facing a capacity problem. The lack of bidders in the market is slowing the programme down."

A leading PFI contractor said: "One issue it must tackle is the standardised documentation that has yet to be finalised. Once that is in place it should speed the process up."

Three new LIFT schemes were also announced: Southern Derbyshire, worth £21m in the first phase; Barnet, Enfield and Harringey, worth £30m; and Colchester and Tendring, worth £20m, all in the first phase.