PPP chief ready to step down

THE head of the Treasury task force that kick-started private investment in public projects is leaving the venture after five years. Adrian Montague, 53, deputy chairman of the Partnerships UK group, which advises on public-private partnerships, said that he was stepping down at the end of December.

Montague, the former project finance chief at Kleinwort Benson, poached by the Treasury in 1997, is tipped to return to the private sector and is unlikely to be replaced.

Partnerships UK recently secured £23m in private sector money from groups such as Jarvis and Serco when the Government sold a 51% stake in the group.

'I have much enjoyed my time with the public sector and I am very proud to have been closely associated with the creation of Partnerships UK. As it has now been successfully established as a PPP in its own right, so the time has come for me to seek new challenges elsewhere,' Montague said.