Civil service office plan dropped

The government says it remains committed to the aims of the project

A major private finance initiative which would have led to 65 government buildings being taken over by the private sector has been dropped.

Workplace 2010 was designed to support reforms across the NI Civil Service.

The project was suspended in October while a Department of Finance and Personnel review was carried out.

A spokesperson said: "It simply does not make sense to proceed, given the decline in property values and the difficulty in securing finance."

The Executive would have benefited in the short term by selling off its offices for a projected income of £175m.

However, in the long term it would have paid rent and charges to the private companies who agreed to run and modernise the buildings.

It is a shame that so many millions have already been wasted on private sector consultants trying to implement a massive privatisation that was only going to line the pockets of bankers and investors John Corey Nipsa

Since the review began, the two remaining bidders for the project have come under single ownership.

The government said in a statement: "During the suspension period, the department undertook to review the procurement in light of the global decline in the property and credit markets.

"Following this review, and as a result of discussions with the now combined Telereal/Trillium business, the parties have decided that it will not be possible to conclude the current Workplace 2010 procurement process in the foreseeable future.

"This is because exceptional market conditions have made it difficult to obtain debt finance for this type of property-related contract, and because of the fall in the value of commercial property."

The department said it remained committed to the original objectives of Workplace 2010.

"We will now seek to achieve these objectives through a number of alternative routes including consideration of conventional procurement to deliver some early phases of the programme and reviewing how the later phases might also be delivered," the spokesperson added.

John Corey of the public service union Nipsa said the termination of the project was "in the best interests of the civil service and the Northern Ireland taxpayer".

"It is a shame that so many millions have already been wasted on private sector consultants trying to implement a massive privatisation that was only going to line the pockets of bankers and investors and not improve civil service efficiency," he said.