While the public sector is tied up in the knots of the procurement process, a group of local authorities have concluded there is a different way of working with the private sector.

Their projects are property-based, their public private partnership (PPP) relationships flexible and reliant on good working relationships rather than the minutiae of contract documentation, and through partnership they also have access to funding.

Their incentive is the pressure to bring in new revenue to replace grant cuts by maximising their property assets as well as regenerating their areas. The initiative involves the creation by the local authority of a joint venture limited liability partnership (LLP) in which the financial benefits are agreed to be shared between the authority and its private sector partner, Public Sector plc.