CMS in the UK has advised the Holdfast Consortium in their Royal School of Military Engineering (RSME) public private partnership (PPP) deal with the Ministry of Defence, which closed this weekend. The Holdfast Consortium comprises Babcock, Carillion, Mid-Kent College, TQ Education and Training, and ESS.
The Royal School of Military Engineering (RSME) provides specialised training to Military Engineers to meet operational requirements across the UK’s Armed Forces, including the Army, Navy and Air Force.
The RSME comprises a headquarters and two schools. HQ RSME and the Construction Engineer School are based in the Medway towns in Kent and the Combat Engineer School is at Minley in Hampshire. The National Search Centre and the Defence Explosive Ordnance Disposal School (NSC & DEODS) are also currently located in the Medway towns.
The RSME PPP is valued at approximately £300 million capital spend and £2.7 billion revenue spend over a 30 year period, partnering with Holdfast Training Services. The contract will deliver:
· Training and training support
· Construction of new buildings and refurbishment of existing structures for the RSME
· The relocation of DEODS and NSC from the Medway Towns in Kent to Bicester in Oxfordshire
Benefits to the Ministry of Defence will include, the transfer of military posts from a training establishment to front-line units, improved living and working conditions for trainees and staff and a reduced training estate with lower running costs.
The CMS team was led by European Head of Infrastructure & Project Finance, Frank Dufficy. The extensive cross-practice team also included Rob Gray and James Thomas (Infrastructure & Projects), and members from the firm’s Corporate, Real Estate, Employment, Health & Safety, Pensions, Insurance and Tax practices.
“This important project offers local amenity enhancements and will deliver real enhancements to the lives of people serving in our armed forces,” commented Frank Dufficy. “It will improve standards of learning, accommodation and technical training, all of which are key objectives for the Ministry of Defence.”
Frank Dufficy added, “The training services element forms the main part of the proposed project spend. This is the first MoD PPP contract where the training services element, rather than equipment or accommodation, forms the bulk of the services to be delivered. Also from a contract method perspective, this is the first PPP contract based on SoPC version 4, without commercial funding, to have achieved completion in the UK.”
Frank Dufficy also previously led the CMS team in 2006 that acted for the Aspire Defence Limited consortium in Project Allenby/Connaught, the £11 billion PFI programme to upgrade accommodation and provide a range of services for the British Army garrisons at Aldershot and around Salisbury Plain. This was the largest and most complex accommodation PFI contract undertaken in the UK.
CMS was recently listed as one of the top two PPP / PFI legal advisers in Europe by Infrastructure Journal (IJ Online), based on the value of deals advised on over the last 12 months.
Addleshaw Goddard advised the Ministry of Defence on this PPP project.
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