The firm advised the Welsh Government on Wales’s first PFI project from formation in 1997 through to its handback in December 2025, a nearly 30-year engagement spanning three successive public sector clients.
Blake Morgan has played a central role in the conclusion of Wales’s first-ever Private Finance Initiative (PFI) project, the landmark Bute Avenue regeneration scheme in Cardiff. The firm advised the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation and, thereafter, the Welsh Government throughout the project’s lifespan, from its inception in 1997 through to its successful handback in December 2025, a period spanning nearly three decades.
The Bute Avenue PFI project was a transformative infrastructure initiative that regenerated Cardiff Bay and involved the design, construction, and 25-year maintenance of Bute Avenue (now Lloyd George Avenue), the arterial route connecting Cardiff Bay to the city centre, paving the way for later developments. The PFI formally expired in December 2025, with the infrastructure handed back to Cardiff County Council, marking one of the first PFI handbacks in Wales and among the earliest in the wider UK.
Blake Morgan (formerly Morgan Cole) was appointed to advise the Cardiff Bay Development Corporation on the formation of and entry into the original PFI agreement in 1997. As the project evolved, the firm continued to advise successive public bodies, including the Welsh Development Agency and the Welsh Government, which, in turn, assumed the rights and obligations of the original corporation throughout the PFI’s lifespan.
Alongside the core PFI advisory work, Blake Morgan also advised the Welsh Government over many years on several property transactions linked to the PFI, supporting the Welsh Government’s wider strategy to develop the south of Callaghan Square and facilitate the proposed Metro connections from central Cardiff to Cardiff Bay.
In the final stages of the PFI, Blake Morgan advised the Welsh Government on the handback arrangements throughout 2024 and 2025. This included advising on the full range of legal work required to bring the arrangement to a close, including deeds of variation to the project and highways agreements to accommodate other major infrastructure projects such as the South Wales Metro, handback inspections and condition reports, and agreements discharging Welsh Government, ProjectCo and subcontractors’ maintenance and handback obligations.
The successful handback of the Bute Avenue PFI closely follows the recent handback of the Chepstow Community Hospital to Aneurin Bevan Local Health Board, for which Blake Morgan also advised the Health Board.
Several public bodies will be approaching similar end-of-contract arrangements in the years ahead. Blake Morgan’s deep institutional knowledge of PFI handback arrangements means the firm is uniquely positioned to navigate the legal complexities of PFI infrastructure handbacks.
