Leeds City Council appoints DLA Piper as PFI advisors
LAWYERS from DLA Piper have won an exclusive contract to advise Leeds City Council on its extensive public private partnership (PPP) and public finance initiative (PFI) projects.
The team from the firm’s Leeds office has been awarded the exclusive mandate to provide legal support to the council for three years. It will assist the council on projects ranging from building and maintaining social housing and leisure facilities to the renovation and rebuilding of schools.
The firm’s specialist projects team has extensive experience in structuring partnership contracts between public and private sector organisations.
It has previously worked successfully with the council over the last five years on structuring the commercial deals for the building of more than 20 schools, replacing the lighting of many miles of the city’s streets, and delivering leisure centre and social housing projects.
Nick Matlby, who leads the DLA Piper team, said: “Leeds City Council has become the pre-eminent local authority procurer of PPP in the UK as a result of its track record over the last five years and we are proud to be associated with this success.
“We will use the next period of the appointment to maintain and build on this success, which is due in part to the fantastic team of people we have here.”
David Outram of Leeds City Council’s public private partnerships unit, said: “DLA Piper has the strength and reputation to represent the city council in these vital arrangements between the public and the private sector, to help secure commercial deals that support the improvement of the public infrastructure and facilities of Leeds.”
The appointment as exclusive legal advisor on PPP/PFI projects will run until May 2011.
