53 To get an indication of the causes of price increases, our survey asked those 32 projects reporting price increases to rate potential causes from very important to not at all important.
54 The most commonly stated reasons for price increases were construction changes initiated by the public sector and as a result of third party decisions, some of which enlarged not only project scope and deliverables but also cost. Our earlier work4 has concluded that project changes in the absence of competitive tension are a risk to value for money, and therefore should be kept to a minimum. We therefore conducted more detailed analysis of projects reporting price increases.
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4 NAO report. Making Changes in Operational PFI Projects (HC 205, 2007-08).