9.9 The Government is looking at framework funding solutions, particularly for application in those schemes which bundle together smaller schemes, for example Partnerships for Church of England Schools (bundled schemes are explained further in Chapter 8). The aim will be to provide a faster, cheaper funding solution, which maintains the benefits of third party finance but reduces its inherent inefficiencies when applied to smaller schemes. The finance would continue to be provided by the private sector, with the same advantages for the PFI project this brings.
9.10 While such a framework funding solution would make access to third party finance easier and more cost-effective for smaller schemes, all control and accountability for those schemes would remain at the level of the procuring authority itself. Funding for locally-driven schemes would become cheaper to access, allowing authorities to get better value for the investment they control.
9.11 Work is underway to analyse the benefits of these framework funding conduits, and look at the degree of flexibility on drawdown that would be available within such a scheme. It is not envisaged that framework funding schemes would be applied more widely to stand alone schemes. The benefits are seen to occur predominantly in grouped small projects potentially using the procurement of the kind outlined in Chapter 8.