7.51 The Deputy Prime Minister's Sustainable Communities Plan, published in February 2003, sets out an action programme for building successful, thriving and inclusive communities, including through substantial development in four growth areas in the South-East and East, and renewal of areas of housing market weakness in the Midlands and North. There is a case for looking at the scope for PFI, and other public-private partnership approaches to contribute to this programme. PFI could have a part to play, for example:
• in the procurement of major capital assets, where the risks attached to conventional procurement, and hence the potential benefits of PFI, are great; and
• particularly where the nature of this investment makes it possible to draw clear lines in the allocation of risk, giving a potential private sector contractor responsibility for the design, construction and maintenance of the assets.