2.21 The evidence suggests that housing projects take longer to procure through PFI than other routes, although the different routes are providing different services. The Department was not able to provide us with data, but local authorities and providers told us that the PFI process generally takes too long compared to other routes. Housing associations who undertake the majority of new build social housing, bid for grant funding from the Agency which usually takes around two to four months. Subsequent timings vary considerably and will depend on things like site availability, planning permission and workstream profiling, but housing associations generally use framework contracts to procure construction work which speeds up appointments and means that individual projects can begin more quickly. After grants have been approved, work can start on site in as little as 6-9 months. This compares to procurement times of between 26-43 months seen on typical new build PFI projects.
2.22 There is limited information on how long it takes to procure work to bring properties up to the Decent Homes standard using the other investment options, each of which follows a different process to a PFI project. However, analysis undertaken for our report on the Decent Homes Programme11 did set out that the actual time taken to complete a stock transfer from the start of bidding for acceptance onto the programme to transfer of the stock, was 31 months. As with their new build work, housing associations can then call on framework contracts to procure the work which can happen in as little as 2-3 months. The average time it took local authorities to establish an Arms Length Management Organisation from bidding for acceptance on the programme to establishment, was 21 months. We have no data on how long it takes a local authority to procure refurbishment work if it chooses to do this without central government funding.
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11 National Audit Office: The Decent Homes Programme.