2.8 Our survey of 35 shortlisted bidders across the 42 schemes identified strong interest in bidding from the private sector, with in excess of 30 expressions of interest for many LIFT areas. A variety of players were involved - often large companies with experience of PFI, but also third party developers of primary care premises and regional contractors. Involvement from regional companies is encouraging. They are often very well placed to deliver positive outcomes - they know the local area and its issues and are visible to the public sector participants and the wider community. Through sub contracting of their supply chain they can also expand capacity to other regional companies. A majority of LIFT schemes found it was possible to select three good candidates at the shortlist stage. All LIFT schemes managed to maintain competition between at least two bidders until selection of preferred bidder.
2.9 Local selection processes followed an established national model. Short listed bidders developed detailed plans for a sample of first tranche schemes and presented their proposals at open meetings at which wider stakeholders had chance to comment and feed in their requirements. Although evaluation criteria were developed centrally, LIFT project boards gave their own weighting to these in line with local needs. This resulted in some local variation in the final evaluation process. Most areas set up separate committees to evaluate the key components of the bids.12
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12 Typically LIFTCos set up separate committees for legal, financial, technical and partnering evaluation.