Supporting Delivery

Delivering the Investment Strategy for Northern Ireland (ISNI) 2008-2018 is a political and economic imperative for the Northern Ireland Executive. The scale of planned investment is significantly higher now than in recent years, projects are getting larger and procurement law more complex. Recent changes to government accounting and budgeting rules limit traditional flexibility to roll-forward capital budgets.  

Our team of Strategic Advisers has a wealth of experience in complex asset procurement and delivery.  We work with stakeholders to:

  • identify innovative ways in which capital investment can help to transform critical business processes and performance - including sourcing best practice from elsewhere;
  • speed up business case development - including effective management of external professional advisers;
  • manage interfaces with key internal and external stakeholders - including potential partners in other government departments;
  • identify appropriate procurement strategies (e.g. frameworks, strategic partnering, PPP) or develop new methods to improve value for money;
  • establish internal programme delivery teams and structures - including recruitment of new talent where required;
  • undertake soft market testing to increase competitive interest in projects;
  • apply EU and UK procurement law correctly – including new Competitive Dialogue procedures – and reduce the risk of legal challenge;
  • get a better deal through effective risk analysis and commercial deal structuring;
  • undertake effective commercial negotiation to close the deal; and
  • undertake benefits realisation studies.

Our team focuses on supporting projects that are complex, high risk, high visibility schemes, which offer the most leverage and transformation potential and therefore maximising the leverage of public to private funding. At any time, there are around 50 supported projects/programmes at various stages in the procurement cycle.

        

In addition, the team has access to an Enabling Fund that can provide targeted financial assistance for technical studies, economic appraisals, business case development etc.

Recent work includes:  

Partner Overview
DE/BELB Designing and delivering a wholly new ‘strategic partnering’ approach to speed up delivery of over £300m investment in schools in Belfast, and to secure significant savings in time and cost for the Belfast Education & Library Board (BELB).
DRD/NI Water Structuring Project Omega (waster water treatment infrastructure) as an off-balance sheet PPP transaction, thereby freeing up over £100m to fund other priority infrastructure projects in ISNI.
DRD/Roads Service Advising on the commercial structure of Roads Package 1 (M1 – Westlink upgrade) with built-in incentives to accelerate delivery.
DHSSPS Building significantly greater bidder interest in hospital development than similar projects in Great Britain. Four international consortia bid for the South West Acute Hospital at a time when the average for a similar project in GB was two and in Scotland 1.7. The benefit to the taxpayer of this competitive tension was shown in a set of high-quality bids that were aggressively priced.

For more information please contact a Strategic Adviser