Public-private infrastructure fund to invest up to $500m

Hospitals, schools and houses will be the target of the new public-private infrastructure fund. Pictured: Auckland Hospital. Photo/Dean Purcell

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is to put up to $100 million into a public-private partnership fund investing in infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and housing.

Privately-owned infrastructure manager Morrison & Co is setting up the Public Infrastructure Partnership fund, which could invest up to $500m.

Annual fees will be charged for the facilities, which will be handed back to public ownership after two to three decades.

Morrison & Co director Peter Coman told Radio New Zealand the fund was an alternative funding source, but it was not appropriate for all types of public sector infrastructure investment.

Council of Trade Unions secretary Peter Conway said the fund was being structured around a profit back to shareholders and the terms could mean that in the long run the public was paying over the odds for the ownership of a public asset.

He acknowledged that in the short term the fund may save some money because investment was going into public infrastructure from the private sector.

New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development chief executive Stephen Selwood said private finance initiatives had been used extensively to refurbish almost the entire school stock in Britain.

In Sydney a range of projects had been carried out, including schools, hospitals, courts and prisons.

New Zealand Educational Institute vice-president Ian Leckie said the individuality of schools to best use their facilities in evenings and at other times might be compromised by the wishes by any private enterprise to use those facilities for other purposes that delivered profit rather than service.

- NZPA