The Scottish Government has announced plans to invest an additional £220M in the construction of new schools and hospitals, part of a £1Bn extension of Scotland’s non profit distributing (NPD) programme.
Finance Secretary John Swinney said the projects will deliver a significant boost to jobs in construction as well as supporting the wider economy.
A total of £120M NPD investment will develop a new maternity hospital and a new cancer centre as part of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Campus. An additional £100M of investment will be set aside for the Schools for the Future programme, which will financially support local authorities in delivering new and refurbished school buildings.
Full details of the projects contained within the planned £1Bn extension to the NPD programme will be announced in the Scottish Government’s autumn Draft Budget.
Mr Swinney said: “The Scottish Government is using every lever at our disposal to support the Scottish economy and to invest in our public services.
“This investment will build on the successes of the current NPD programmes and provide the construction sector with the long term certainty of a future pipeline of work that will promote growth and help create jobs.”
The NPD was introduced as an alternative to the Private Finance Initiative which was seen as generating excess profits for private sector companies, and has been reported to be highly successful.
Major projects in the NPD pipeline currently under construction include the £310 M8, M73 and M74 motorway improvements (The largest NPD contract to be awarded so far), a £193M City of Glasgow College scheme and the £45M Inverness College.
Projects expected to get under way shortly include the £48M Ayrshire College Kilmarnock Campus, the £155M NHS Lothian Royal Hospital for Sick Children/Department of Clinical Neurosciences, and the £48M NHS Ayrshire & Arran Acute Mental Health & North Ayrshire Community Hospital.
Procurement of the £472M AWPR/Balmedie to Tipperty road scheme is almost complete. This 58km road is expected to start construction work before the end of 2014 with completion in Spring 2018.
