Practice Areas

• Central and Local Government
• The Church
• Commercial
• Construction Industry
• Employment
• House Builders
• Licensed Trade
• PFI / Projects
• Police and Law Enforcement
• Private Client
• Property
• Schools
• Social Housing
• Transport, Docks and Harbours
• The Voluntary Sector

PFI / Projects

Whilst the market tends to identify PFI (Private Finance Initiative) as the banner under which work is carried out, in fact PFI is simply a particular form of Public Private Partnership (PPP).

Generally speaking PFI is used by central government to procure capital projects, such as the building of a new school, hospital or road. The process whereby the government allocates “PFI Credits” to be used to support private sector funding is strictly controlled, in part to achieve best practice and in part because of the restrictive application of the EU Procurement Rules, which apply to the majority of contracts to be entered into by public authorities. A PPP project is likely to be much wider in scope, may involve a number of public authorities working together and may achieve a more significant degree of risk transfer (from the public sector to the private sector), particularly involving the private sector in the provision of public services. Examples of these include student accommodation projects, housing renewal schemes, waste projects, road tolls and ISTCs (Independent Sector Treatment Centres).

Winckworth Sherwood undertakes the following types of work:

•    PFI (Private Finance Initiative)
•    PPP (Public Private Partnership)
•    public sector joint ventures such as housing and regeneration schemes
•    complex property transactions involving structured finance and development

in the following key sectors:

•    key worker accommodation
•    student accommodation/higher education
•    social housing including homeless accommodation
•    social services/primary care including NHS LIFT
•    residential care homes including children’s homes
•    urban regeneration focusing on housing and industrial redevelopment
•    schools including Building Schools for the Future
•    NHS
•    IT and telecommunications
•    transport

Drawing on the expertise of the firm’s practice areas, we focus on projects which are innovative and have a strong property focus. We have worked on a number of pathfinder projects and have developed bespoke models in the student/key worker accommodation and social housing markets. We act for both public sector organisations and private sector clients and consortia, including voluntary and not for profit organisations who are increasingly being encouraged to support the Government in the provision of public services.