11. Some projects had completed value testing in between nine and 16 months but two projects had taken longer. In the case of an office accommodation project (St John's House, Bootle), the benchmarking process took just over two years because there was some difficulty in agreeing comparative data for the benchmarking exercise and the public sector rejected a proposed 16% price increase. Hereford and Worcester Magistrates Court had been trying to complete a benchmarking exercise for over three years because of difficulties in finding comparable data and there was little incentive for the private sector to complete the process since, at the time of the first benchmarking exercise, the contract only allowed for a price reduction. Generally, however, the public sector experience of the time taken to renew services within PFI contracts is very similar to that of non PFI contracts, where competitive tendering typically takes between six months and two years.14
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