Sheffield prepares for highways maintenance PFI

Sheffield City Council (SCC) is pulling together a business case for a £300m highways and street maintenance PFI to be put to the Department for Transport (DfT) for credit approval.

The scheme, which will be similar to the £2.2bn Birmingham highways PFI in terms of service provision, will involve “fence to fence” services for the city’s street and highways network. Works are likely to include maintenance, street cleaning, verge cutting and some new build.

The scheme will be put to the council’s cabinet next month and, if approved, will be submitted to the DfT later this year.

The DfT has made £600m available in PFI credits to fund local authorities’ PFI highway maintenance schemes to address the serious backlog of maintenance on the local road network.

An SCC source told CJ that the council is still waiting to hear back on an application for £30m in streetlighting credits.

“We were due to hear in May, but we are still waiting,” he said. “If we are successful, we will look to put the credits on hold and then factor it into the highways PFI.”

Only one such scheme has been awarded so far; the £500m Portsmouth pathfinder PFI contract awarded to Colas.
Birmingham City Council is still looking to award its PFI scheme, which has been hit by delays and union discontent.