The Privatisation of Royal Mail
Published on:The Department was successful in floating Royal Mail. But its approach was marked by deep caution, the price of which was borne by the taxpayer.
Search results for 'Corporate finance'
Showing 61 - 80 of 138 results
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Oversight of three PFI waste projects
Published on:All three projects examined by the NAO have experienced significant delays stemming from a range of problems.
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Thames Tideway Tunnel: early review of potential risks to value for money
Published on:The Thames Tideway Tunnel is a planned project to build a large sewer running under the River Thames. It is the Government’s preferred solution to the problem of spills from London’s sewers into the tidal part of the Thames. In response to correspondence, we explain the roles of the different parties, identify potential risks to value for money and set out what we expect good project management to look like. To avoid influencing the outcome of ongoing competitions for the construction and financing of the project, we do not evaluate the value for money of the project and the issues raised do not imply any audit judgement about its performance.
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Putting finance at the heart of decision-making
Published on:The Government Finance Profession’s Finance Leadership Group has published a paper with support from the National Audit Office.
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Early contracts for renewable electricity
Published on:The Government awarded, without competition, £16.6 billion worth of early contracts to eight renewable generation projects at risk of investment delay.
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Spinning-out MyCSP as a mutual joint venture
Published on:MyCSP has the potential to be good value for money with a projected saving of 50 per cent on costs, but the Cabinet Office and MyCSP still face many large challenges in transforming the service.
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The rural broadband programme
Published on:The programme to make superfast broadband widely available in each area of the UK is currently expected to be delivered nearly two years later than planned.
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The creation and sale of Northern Rock plc
Published on:The Treasury’s 2009 decision to split Northern Rock in two was reasonable at the time but the final net cost to the taxpayer could be some £2 billion.
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Equity investment in privately financed projects
Published on:Equity investors have helped to deliver many public sector infrastructure projects via the Private Finance Initiative and have managed them in ways from which the public sector can learn. Against a background of limited information, evidence gathered by the National Audit Office raises concern that the public sector is paying more than it should for equity investment.
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The completion and sale of High Speed 1
Published on:The HS1 project has delivered a high performing line, which was subsequently sold in a well-managed way. But international passenger numbers are falling far short of forecasts and the project costs exceed the value of journey time saving benefits.
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Procurement of the M25 private finance contract
Published on:The Highways Agency’s PFI contract to widen the M25 could have been better value for money. The slowness with which it was taken forward resulted in higher financing costs, and the Agency was slow to investigate a potentially cheaper alternative to widening.
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Lessons from PFI and other projects
Published on:Lessons from the large body of experience of using PFI can be applied to improve other forms of procurement. Government should also do more to act as an ‘intelligent customer’ in the procurement and management of projects.
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Maintaining the financial stability of UK banks: Update on the support schemes
Published on:The scale of the support currently provided to UK banks has fallen from a peak of £955 billion to £512 billion, but the amount of cash currently borrowed by the Government to support banks has risen by £7 billion since December 2009. It is likely the taxpayer will be providing support for years to come.
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Confirmed impacts: Achieving value for money for the sale of government shares
Published on:This impacts case study shows how our review of the government’s sale of shares in Royal Mail led to the appointment of an expert panel that made recommendations about the whole system of Initial Public Offerings.
It is one example of financial or non-financial benefits realised in 2014 as a result of our involvement, all of which are set out in our interactive PDF.
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Business, Innovation and Skills: Helping over-indebted consumers
Published on:The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS’s) free face-to-face advice for people struggling with debt has helped more people than planned, at slightly less than the planned cost per person, and is highly regarded by those that use it. However, demand is now outstripping capacity.
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Venture capital support to small businesses
Published on:Venture capital funds injected by government into young companies can provide benefit to them, allowing them to raise finance not available through conventional means and to grow. But so far the funds have not been managed as a programme and lack a robust framework of objectives to measure performance, according to a report published by […]
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PFI in housing
Published on:The use of PFI by local authorities to improve housing, usually in areas with a high need for housing and where stock condition is particularly poor, has had a measure of success. However, risks to value for money of the programme have not been managed.
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Maintaining financial stability across the United Kingdom’s banking system
Published on:The National Audit Office has concluded that the public support provided to UK banks by the Treasury was justified, given the scale of the economic and social costs if one or more major banks had collapsed. In providing that support, moreover, the Treasury met two of the government’s principal objectives: protecting depositors’ money in banks and […]
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The sale of the Government’s interest in British Energy
Published on:The Government received a good price when selling its interest in British Energy. But it is too early to say whether the sale will enable the Government to achieve its strategic objective of ensuring nuclear operators are able to build and operate new nuclear power stations from the earliest possible date and with no public […]
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HM Treasury: The nationalisation of Northern Rock
Published on:The NAO has reported that the nationalisation of Northern Rock in early 2008 offered the best prospect of protecting the taxpayers’ interests and was based on a sufficiently robust analysis of the options available. However, the Treasury was stretched to deal with a crisis of this nature and there were lessons to be learned. In […]