Barclays has signed its third major Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in Wales this year, following the agreement of its £8.7m deal with The Macob Group and Pembrokeshire County Council to finance the construction of a new primary school in Pembroke Dock.
The deal will help provide 500 new places for three to eleven year olds, including nursery provision and a special needs service. ‘Project Phoenix’ also includes the creation of new council offices and a public information centre at the site.
Mark Lewis, Pembrokeshire County Council, said: ‘Project Phoenix will provide a new centre of excellence for primary school education within Wales. Coupled with the Public Service Information Point, I believe this PFI development will greatly enhance the way in which we are able to service the local community.’
This follows closely on the recent £15m Cardiff Community Hospital deal with Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust, Impregilo UK Ltd and Macob Group which will see 100 new beds being made available for community care and outpatients. The new facility is to be built on the old St David’s Hospital site.
The bank has also financed a £3 million deal for the building of a new Police station in the town of Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, in conjunction with T.Richard Jones, a local construction company.
Hayley Purdy, Senior Manager of the PFI Unit at Barclays, said: ‘Barclays has already helped to finance more than £170m worth of PFI projects over the last two years. Welsh communities will benefit greatly from the improvements to their facilities through these public-private partnerships.’
The Macob Group, T.Richard Jones and are both existing customers of Barclays Corporate Banking in Wales.