Birmingham’s private-finance initiative highways contract is on schedule to begin in April next year, with issues over union demands now largely resolved.

John Blakemore, Birmingham City Council’s chief highway engineer, said the authority was still evaluating the final bids, but ‘the dates haven’t changed in any way’.

The contractor is due to be appointed in autumn from a shortlist of Amey and Birmingham Street Services, a Ringway-led consortium.

Blakemore also told Surveyor that union demands over pay and conditions had been met, and the unions were negotiating on final terms. ‘The city has moved forward in terms of single-status legislation.’

Some 300 posts are affected by the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings Regulations) transfer. He said rising costs would not delay the project as it was index linked, so ‘pretty stable’.