CEPA's view is that the incentive that PPP provides to the private sector to design assets to minimise whole life costs, and to carry out necessary maintenance is a major area where this form of procurement could have advantages over conventional procurement. But, we are unable to judge this impact because most PPPs are not currently at the stage where it is possible to fully assess the impact of the approach to life-cycle costs.
There was however some evidence from our survey of whole-life costing at the design and construction stage, for example designs that optimised access to areas that would require maintenance and the use of longer lasting flooring materials.
Another interesting point to note arising from our discussions with authorities is that the ring-fencing of funding for PPP contracts means that, provided the contractor budgeted correctly for life-cycle costs in the original bid, such assets may be better maintained than traditionally procured assets. The argument is not related to the characteristics of PPP itself. Rather, that where money for maintenance (and particularly) renewals comes from general budgets it may be subject to other competing claims.