A high profile body set up to introduce private finance into local government activities is to focus its attention on arm’s length housing bodies.
Richard Kemp who is the new chair of the Public Private Partnership Programme - known as the 4Ps - says he will make sorting out the complexities and finance for arm’s length council housing bodies a key priority for the organisation.

Kemp, who is executive member for housing at Liverpool council, says he will make it a priority to ensure the new vehicles suggested in the housing Green Paper can work and will have sufficient finance.

The lessons the organisation has learnt through dealing with PFI could feed into the process, he said.

"They’re going to be incredibly complex to set up," Kemp said. "They could cost £2-2.5m in planning, voting and legalities.

"The lessons we’re learning from PFI bidding could go into arm’s length housing companies."

Kemp warned the arm’s length bodies, which he hoped would be housing and regeneration vehicles, rather than just housing would come at the end of the finance queue, behind large scale voluntary transfer and PFI projects.

"There are a limited number of big PFI players," he warned. "We’ve got a real problem with capacity."

Although 4Ps deals with all kinds of council partnership, many have viewed it as essentially a PFI facilitator.

Kemp said he was keen to develop the principles of partnership more widely.

"I’m just as interested in looking at partnerships as I am about money," he said. "I think there are lots of things councils could learn which don’t involve capital."

He cited his own council’s contract with housing associations to provide repair and maintenance on certain estates.