£200m infrastructure contract awarded in Scotland
Development partnership named as penultimate \'hub\' contract is awarded
The hub responsible for more than £200m worth of public sector infrastructure projects in west Scotland has appointed WellSpring Partnership as its preferred development partner.
The West Territory Hub, a procurement collective which works in a similar way to LIFT companies in England, and the Scottish Futures Trust (SFT) made the announcement this week, paving the way for work to begin on a number of flagship facilities, including health centres, across the region.
WellSpring Partnership is a group made up of Community Solutions Investment Partners, Morgan Sindall Group and Apollo Capital Projects.
One of the primary aims of the hub programme is to bring complementary public sector bodies together under one roof rather than in remotely-located buildings. This way the facilities are easily accessible and back office functions and utilities can be shared. The West Territory Hub will cover all areas throughout Glasgow, Inverclyde, East and West Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire.
Work will now start to further expand a number of outline plans in the £200m investment programme to be delivered over the next 10 years.
Projects will be delivered through a joint venture company (hubCo) formed between the various public sector bodies and the WellSpring Partnership. The flexibility of the hub supply chain will offer opportunities for local SMEs within the construction industry to become involved in building high-quality public sector buildings in their area.
Barry White, chief executive of the Scottish Futures Trust, which is managing the hub groups across Scotland, said: “This is a momentous achievement for SFT and the hub team. In the past 18 months we have announced the appointment of the preferred partners for the South East, North, East Central and West hubs, with the last preferred partner for South West hub to be announced in August 2012. When all hubs are operational they will deliver in excess of £1.4billion of infrastructure projects across Scotland by 2020.
“Across Scotland, the programme is currently building or developing well in excess of £100million of essential projects which, in turn, will support service improvements to local communities and importantly helps protect construction jobs.”
Tony Curran, chairman of the West Territory Hub, added: “The WellSpring Partnership, with its far-reaching and dynamic approach is best placed to deliver better value for money buildings which will facilitate and enhance joint working across the public sector for the benefit of our communities.”