The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow)
On Monday 11 April 2011, we confirmed continued financial support rising to £10.1 million by 2014-15 for four local authority social care PFI projects in England.
Following the spending review in October 2010, which transferred responsibility for PFI schemes to sponsor Departments, the Department of Health undertook a full review of the affordability of the social care PFI scheme and the quality of the proposals that had bid for support. This is in line with the cross-Government reassessment of PFI schemes to ensure they do not create an unaffordable burden.
The projects to receive PFI credits are based in Leeds, Hull, Sandwell and Hammersmith. They will all provide community social care and health facilities for vulnerable people. These projects were among 17 that the Department reviewed. The criteria for the review were: available funding, deliverability and minimising waste—giving priority to those projects already in procurement.
The Government will look to the local authorities whose projects were unsuccessful to give priority to them as front-line services or to look at other ways of providing these services.