3.8 The Department employed IBM Consulting to develop the PSC and should cost models, but rather than rely on one consultant it employed PKF to monitor IBM's development of the models to ensure that it was taking appropriate steps to develop them. We employed Operis to analyse the financial models constructed by the Department and Land Securities Trillium. Operis sought explanations for the differences in the models and concluded that IBM had well thought through justifications for each of the adjustments that it had introduced into its analysis.
3.9 The Department applied lessons learnt from PRIME. The Department and Land Securities Trillium did, as we recommended in our report on PRIME, pool their resources to obtain relevant common information through jointly commissioned surveys on which to price elements of the Department's should cost model and Land Securities Trillium's bid. For example, floor areas were based on a jointly commissioned measurement survey.
3.10 To enable a common basis for the pricing of Life Cycle Capital Expenditure (LCCE), Land Securities Trillium and the Department jointly commissioned, on agreed terms of reference, a condition survey of a representative sample of 224 properties out of 1,108, representing 40 per cent of the total estate floor area. Chesterton reviewed the condition appraisal work on behalf of the Department and Lovells undertook due diligence work on tenure, lease and sub-lease terms, providing Land Securities Trillium with a warranty on the accuracy of that information. LST commissioned valuations of the properties, and the Valuation Office conducted a sample crosscheck on behalf of the Department, and through negotiation agreed a value of £140 million.