Amey and Laing awarded £165 Million Street Lighting contract by Manchester City Council

Amey and Laing Roads, its consortium partner, have been awarded a £165 million street lighting PFI contract by Manchester City Council. The project delivery company's co-owned by Amey Ventures, a subsidiary of Amey plc, the support services specialist, and Laing Roads, a division of John Laing plc, the UK’s leading PPP/PFI infrastructure investor and developer.

The Manchester project is the third PFI street lighting contract to be undertaken by a partnership between Amey and Laing, following closure of the Walsall street lighting contract in March 2002 and the Wakefield street lighting contract in December 2003. The award underlines Amey’s position as the leading PFI street lighting contractor in the UK. The street lighting PFI market continues to grow strongly and is valued at around £4 billion based on local Government estimates.

The contract is designed to renew and upgrade street lighting across Manchester. Amey Highways, on behalf of the consortium, will assume responsibility for the management, design, installation and ongoing repair and maintenance of the city’s entire lighting stock. Under the terms of the contract the consortium will replace or upgrade 56,000 streetlights. Services under the 25-year contract will commence in early July 2004.

Councillor Paul Murphy, Manchester City Council's Executive member for Direct Services, said: "I am delighted that this deal has been concluded. Manchester looks forward to benefiting from immense improvements in the quality of the City’s lighting over the next few years."

Mel Ewell, Chief Executive of Amey, said:

"We are pleased to be Manchester City Council's chosen partner in this venture. This is an exciting project for Amey, which will enhance our position as the UK’s leading Street Lighting PFI service provider. We much look forward to working with Council members and employees in the delivery of a first class street lighting service for the benefit of the people of Manchester.”

Derek Potts, Managing Director of Laing Roads, said:

"Our ongoing partnership with Amey allows our respective strengths and experience in street lighting and maintenance projects to benefit the people of Manchester. Laing Roads is established as a leading investor in this field and we look forward to investing in similar projects for other major cities, as we already are in Walsall and Wakefield.”

Notes to editors

1. The Manchester project means that Amey is now responsible for the management and/or maintenance of more than half a million lighting units, making it one of the largest street lighting service providers in the UK. Amey already provides highway services to 12 Local Authorities in England and Scotland, serving more than 3.2 million people.
    
2. In 2002/3 Amey Highways won the pioneering 7-year highways maintenance contract for Hertfordshire County Council, which includes 132,000 street lighting columns. This adds to its street lighting management and maintenance portfolio for Local Government, including Walsall MBC, Wakefield MDC, City of York, Wolverhampton MBC, Calderdale MBC, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire. Amey Highways also manages and maintains five of the Highways Agency's contracts and two similar contracts in South-West and South-East Scotland, all of which include responsibility for street lighting.
    
3. Amey, on its first streetlighting PFI with its partner Walsall Metropolitan Borough Council, won the coveted Best Transport Project at the PFI Awards last year.
    
4. Amey is a leading provider of integrated business support services to the public and private sector and is working closely with central and local government to develop major PFI/PPP projects, including education, health, transport and defence. Services range from managing large scale transportation infrastructure to delivering professional and back office services, all of which are underpinned by leading-edge technology and a genuine partnering philosophy.
    
5. Laing Roads, a division of John Laing plc, has a portfolio of ten projects including the M40, M6, A130, A55, Sirhowy Way and the Severn River Crossing in the UK, Tieyhtiö Nelostie (Finland’s first privately financed infrastructure project), the E39 road (Norway’s first PPP project), Walsall Street lighting PFI and the Wakefield Street Lighting PFI.
    
6. John Laing plc, is one of the UK’s leading corporate developers and investors in public infrastructure through the Private Finance Initiative with a proven record of delivering new investments on time and to budget. It holds a large and expanding portfolio of investments under three main divisions: Laing Roads, Laing Rail and Equion. The Group currently invests in a total of 37 projects spanning transport, health, education and special purpose government facilities, of which 22 are fully operational. It is currently preferred bidder on 14 PFI and PPP projects and shortlisted for a further 13. The majority of the investments are within the UK though a number are in continental Europe.
    
7. John Laing plc won the Infrastructure Journal Developer of the Year Award in January 2004, following success in the PPP Developer of the Year category in 2003 and 2002.
    
8. The 4ps (Public Private Partnership Programme), a local government agency set up to assist local authorities develop and procure PPP and PFI projects, believes that investment of up to £4 billion is needed over the period of the Government's ten year transport plan to reverse the deterioration in the street lighting infrastructure. David Locke, Executive at the 4ps said: "The transport minister announced on 17 October a new bidding process for local authority PFI street lighting projects, with a first year allocation of £300 million for English local authorities and a promise of more to follow, together with a further £85 million over three years for London Boroughs. The 4ps welcomes the new bidding process and the new allocation of funding support for the street lighting service and believes that the new arrangements announced by the Minister will allow local authorities to address the substantial backlog of investment in the street lighting service."

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