ExcellCare Ltd, a joint venture between Equion plc and the Bank of Scotland, has signed a £45m public private sector partnership contract with the Department of Health, through Partnerships for Health, to deliver 21st century primary health and social care and local authority facilities in Greater Nottingham. The agreement will be delivered under the Local Improvement Finance Trust (LIFT) initiative.

Greater Nottingham is the second of ExcellCare's six LIFT projects to reach financial close after Sandwell in January and the 11th out of 42 to close at a national level.

The first tranche of schemes includes new One-Stop Primary Care Centres in Carlton, Stapleford and Clifton. The new buildings will provide local communities with improved access to a greater range of health and social care services under one roof. A further two at Mary Potter and Keyworth are due to be finalised in September 2004.  Equion FM will provide building maintenance for a period of 25 years.

Construction of the first three schemes will start later this month.

ExcellCare Director, David Hartshorne said: "This LIFT scheme means that the local community will have access to comprehensive health and social care provided in modern primary care settings by a highly skilled and appropriately trained workforce."

Derek Stewart, chair of Gedling Primary Care Trust, which leads on LIFT issues in Nottingham, said: "This provides an exciting opportunity for everyone. These new facilities offer a way of delivering support and care for people in completely new ways within one-stop centres."

Brian Johns, Partnerships for Health said: "This is a major achievement for Partnerships for Health and the new Greater Nottingham LIFT Company. This is the first LIFT company to begin work in the East Midlands - a part of the country where spending on primary care premises has been traditionally low. The area can now look forward to sustained long-term investment where modern patient-centred, state-of-the-art premises will transform health and social care. These are challenging and rewarding times that clearly mark a huge step-change in how primary and social care will be delivered."

Participants in the Greater Nottingham LIFT are four Primary Care Trusts - Broxtowe & Hucknall, Gedling, Nottingham City and Rushcliffe, and four councils - Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council, Broxtowe Borough Council and Rushcliffe Borough Council.

Notes to editors

Contact Christine Jones on Tel: 020 7901 3200 for interviews with ExcellCare.
ExcellCare is preferred bidder on four further LIFT schemes in Manchester, Salford and Trafford, North Nottinghamshire, Leicester and Southern Derbyshire.  It is also a shareholder in the Sandwell LIFT project, which reached financial close in January 2004.
Equion plc is a specialist provider of facilities in the PFI and PPP markets with a long-term perspective and approach. The company manages and delivers projects from planning and funding through to design, construction and operation. It is actively involved in the management of a wide range of health, police, education, defence and special purpose government facilities including:

-       a radical restructuring of primary health care facilities in Manchester, Salford and Trafford
-       the new Norfolk & Norwich, and Queen Elizabeth (Greenwich) Hospitals
-       the Ministry of Defence Main Building refurbishment in Whitehall
-       the Joint Services Command and Staff College at Shrivenham
-       Highlands Secondary School in Enfield
-       South East Essex College at Southend

Equion and its parent company, John Laing plc, won the Infrastructure Journal Developer of the Year Award in February 2004. http://www.equion.plc.uk/

Bank of Scotland Corporate Banking's Infrastructure Finance team is a leading funder of Public Private Partnership projects.  It has funded more than 100 PPP projects and has provided equity investment as part of an integrated funding package to more than 40 projects, equating to £10 billion of project value across the UK and Europe.  It has participated in the funding of more than 8,000 acute hospital bed spaces across the UK and is a major investor in the improvement of Britain's hospitals and health centres, with several more projects currently at preferred bidder stage.