4.1.2.  Building performance compared with non-PPP projects

Figure 10 shows authorities' views on the relative performance of PPP projects. Most authorities did not perceive a difference in aesthetics, functionality or environmental performance between PPP and non-PPP projects, although some believed that PPPs perform better.

Figure 10: Comparison of PPP and non-PPP projects with respect to aesthetics, functionality and environment

Where authorities believed that PPP had delivered a better solution, they ascribed this to the impact of life-cycle maintenance and hand-back requirements on the design approach, the impact of transferred utilities risk on energy efficient design, and the output-based specification allowing greater scope for imaginative and individual aesthetic design. Where authorities did not perceive a difference, they commented that building standards and the environmental and functional specification provided to the contractor would be the same whatever the procurement method, and that they would have expected to have had the same input into the design whether PPP had been used or not.