3.  Potential Benefits of Grouping DBFM Projects

There are a number of examples in recent history of where small DBFM projects have been grouped together to benefit from, inter alia:

•  Economies of scale in procurement time, effort and cost;

•  The ability to encourage bidders to look at projects on a programme level and structure their bids in order to deliver projects more efficiently and at a lower cost; and

•  Lower cost of finance through a reduction in overall advisory input for the grouped schemes when compared to that of individual projects.

The following factors have been identified by the SFT as being key to the decision making process in respect of grouping hub DBFM Projects:

•  Project Readiness;

•  Project size (£) and funding options;

•  Sources of Project Funding;

•  Procuring Authority;

•  Market Interest/Capacity;

•  Project location; and

•  Project scope.

The following sections consider each of these factors.