Bovis ditches £374m Bristol PFI hospital bid

Bovis Lend Lease has scrapped its bid for the £375m Southmead PFI hospital in Bristol. The withdrawal of the Bovis led-Catalyst consortium leaves just Carillion and Skanska left in the race.

A spokesperson for the Catalayst consortium said the team's design wasn’t sufficiently developed to continue the bid.

Southmead is the first major PFI hospital procured using a competitive dialogue system, where bidders submit far more detailed designs.

This appears to have been the reason for the Bovis withdrawal. The spokesman for Catalyst said that the team felt it would be unable to progress designs for the scheme to a sufficient stage to allow them to continue with their bid.

The decision will come as a blow to the Department of Health which had pushed the competitive dialogue system for large acute hospital PFI schemes, against the wishes of bidders.

A preferred bidder for Southmead is due to be announced in September 2007, with work scheduled to start on site in July 2009.