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4. Public Private Partnerships [PPP]
Public Private Partnership (PPP) is an umbrella name for a range of initiatives, which involves
the private sector in the operation of public services. According to the United Nations
Institute for Training and Research, a fully functioning infrastructure and efficient provision of
social services are the foundation of sustained urban development, and public private
partnership have been an effective tool for achieving improved performance in this area
(UNITAR, 2002).
The British Government launched their PPP development policy in 1992, under the label
‘Private Finance Initiative’ (PFI). The Private Finance Initiative is a procurement mechanisms
by which the public sector contracts to purchase quality services on a long-term basis, so as to
take advantage of private sector management skills incentivised by having private finance at
risk. This includes concessions and franchises, where a private sector partner takes on the
responsibility for providing a public service, including maintaining, enhancing or constructing
necessary infrastructure. Many public sector bodies throughout Europe are now looking to the
UK-PFI model as a potential way of procuring much needed municipal services and securing
the effective delivery of urban renewal.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers maintain, in their report Developing PPP’s in the New EU (2004), that for most
European Countries in the future, the reality is that some form of PPP/PFI is likely to emerge as the
principle means of providing public services in the absence of adequate public sector funding.
5. Land Pooling
The process known as land pooling, land readjustment or land consolidation is used to effect
land assembly in many parts of the world where simple public sector compulsory purchase
powers are unacceptable alone. There are a variety of models of land pooling (Connellan,
2002):
Entirely voluntary, achieving land assembly by agreement amongst owners.
Public authority inspired, controlled and compulsorily affected: (German
model).
Voluntary but having recourse to an authorised framework: (French model).
Authorised framework designed on majority rules, where you can override
dissenters and enforce participation: (Japanese model).
Land pooling does not have to involve land acquisition, nor does it require huge funds for
compensation, and is argued to be a more effective way of delivering land assembly needs in
urban regeneration or large scale development. It is a process whereby landowners combine
their interests in order to participate in land assembly, servicing and disposal in accordance
with a plan.
The origin of land pooling is considered to be from Germany, where it was first practiced in the late
19 th century. The country has a well-established method for implementing land-pooling projects and it
developed 5000 hectares of land through these techniques in the late 1980s. The German model
operates through the formal procedure of land readjustment known as ‘Umlegung’.
References:
Connellan, O. (2002) Land Assembly for Development – The Role of Landpooling, Land
Readjustment and Land Consolidation. Discussion document from FIG Conference 2002.
Washington. Urban Villages Forum.
McGreal, S., Berry, J., Lloyd, G. & McCarty, J. (2002) ‘Tax-Based Mechanisms in Urban
Regeneration: Dublin and Chicago Models’, Urban Studies, 39 (10), 1819-1831.
Ratcliffe, J., Branagh, S. & Williams, B. (1999) Fiscal Incentives and Urban Regeneration.
Bolton Street, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin.
United Nations Institute for Training and Research. (2002) PPP for Sustainable Development.
Available: http://www.unint.unitar/ppp
Urban Land Institute (2004). Tax Increment Financing in Chicago. Available:
http://www.uli.org
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