NHS Estates, the Department of Health's design agency, has disclosed the names of the 12 contractor-led consortiums selected for the £7bn Procure 21 framework agreement.
Those on the list include Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Interserve and Wates. Firms that failed to make the list were Skanska, Galliford Try and Willmott Dixon.

The five-year framework agreements cover all non-PFI projects with a capital cost greater than £1m. The contractors are known as national principal supply chain partners.

The announcement fulfils a commitment NHS Estates made in the Sold on Health document in May 2000, which said it would pilot the partnering scheme in two regions before it was rolled out nationally.

NHS Estates chief executive Peter Wearmouth said: "Trusts in the pilot areas have told us how much they value the experience and commitment of the partners, and the benefits they are obtaining from Procure 21's focus on cutting timescales and delivering predictability."

In an announcement to the London Stock Exchange John Vyse, a director of support services group Interserve said: "Procure 21 is all about partnership and commitment to the framework's aims: value for money, accelerated procurement and quality."

The other firms on the list are: ACM, HBG, Laing, Kier, Medicor, Medicinq, Integrated Health Solutions and Taylor Woodrow.

The NHS trusts that will use the Procure 21 method have been set a target of taking at least nine months off the usual procurement time.

Jonathan Michael, chief executive of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust, said: "As a trust chief executive, I need certainty from my capital programme. I need cost certainty and I need to know the project will finish on time. NHS Procure 21 offers me both."