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Education Secretary Michael Gove has set out a complete overhaul of capital investment in England’s schools. Bringing an end to Building Schools for the Future (BSF), he said ‘In the light of the public finances, it would have been irresponsible to carry on regardless with an inflexible, and needlessly complex programme.’ The key elements of the announcement to Parliament are: - 706 schools will be opened under new arrangements being agreed today, of which nearly 386 schools are projected to be new build; 262 to be remodelled or refurbished; 26 to be ICT-only. The building programme in 32 further schools is yet to be confirmed.
- 715 schools will no longer be rebuilt or refurbished through BSF of which nearly 180 schools are projected to be new build, over 319 to be remodelled or refurbished and 63 to be ICT-only. The building programme in 153 schools has not yet been confirmed.
- That 123 academy projects in development which have not reached financial close will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
- That in 14 cases, prioritised locally as 'sample' projects - the first taken forward in the area - will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis in recognition of local need. Although financial close has not been reached, very significant work has been undertaken to the point of appointing a preferred bidder at 'close of dialogue'.
- That the Government is launching a comprehensive Review of all capital investment in schools, early years, colleges and sixth forms. Led by Sebastian James, Group Operations Director of DSG international plc, the Review team includes Kevin Grace, Tesco - Director of Property Services, Barry Quirk, Chief Executive of Lewisham, John Hood former Vice-Chancellor of University of Oxford and Sir John Egan, former Chief Executive of Jaguar and BAA.
- The review will guide future spending decisions over the next Spending Review period (2011-12 to 2014-15). It will look at how best to meet parental demand; make current design and procurement cost-effective and efficient; and overhaul how capital is allocated and targeted.
- That the department is reducing its End Year Flexibility (EYF) requirements by £1bn to help ensure no additional borrowing this year. This is in line with the Government’s plan to reduce the deficit, and the Treasury’s announcement today that Departments have agreed to address unrealistic inherited spending commitments for 2010-11, where funding was reliant on underspends through the (EYF) system or additional funding from the Government’s Reserve. The Department expects to be able to manage most of this through better financial management and tighter controls. Because of the size of the reduction, however, the Department will have to make £169.5m savings from capital budgets where commitments are no longer affordable.
The Secretary of State also announced that he will be ending funding for the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) design advice service associated with the BSF programme.
The Interserve-led consortium Environments for Learning (E4L) has been named preferred bidder to undertake a major schools development programme for St Helens Council worth provisionally £150 million. The programme will operate under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative. Interserve will construct two schools, with a capital cost of £47 million, in the first phase: Rainford High Technology College and De La Salle School. Rainford will be financed using the private finance initiative (PFI) and Interserve will provide facilities management services worth £8 million to the school over a 25-year period once complete. Six further schools, worth an aggregate of over £100 million in construction costs, have been identified for subsequent development. Two of these will be procured through PFI. E4L and St Helens Council will, together with BSF Investments, become partners in St Helens’s Local Education Partnership (LEP). We anticipate reaching financial close on the contract in the autumn this year; construction will begin immediately afterwards, leading to the first schools being ready to accept pupils for the start of the academic year in September 2012. Interserve’s Chief Executive, Adrian Ringrose, commented, “St Helens Council has clearly shown its commitment to providing children in the area with the latest educational facilities, and we will play our part in ensuring that the schools we build will deliver the benefits the community needs. Interserve is one of the country’s most experienced and successful companies in creating schools through BSF. This is our third such development programme, alongside Sandwell in the West Midlands and our award-winning partnership at Leeds.”
The Government has released another £1 billion of funding for more Building Schools for the Future projects in Brent, Darlington, Devon, Havering, Kingston & Croydon, Norfolk, Plymouth, Sefton, Wakefield,Warrington. Lancashire and Tameside will recieve enhancements on their existing schemes under the £55 billion programme to rebuild or refurbish every state secondary school in England. The 12 authorities were selected from 20 by a selection process which tested their readiness to deliver the projects. A total of 96 local authorities are now involved in the programme. Partnership for Schools chief executive Tim Byles said: “With more than 110,000 pupils already benefitting from BSF investment, today’s announcement will boost this growing figure over the coming years. “As well as delivering the new schools facilities that teachers and pupils deserve to every community, BSF will also help safeguard tens of thousands of jobs on the ground in the construction and related industries.”
Fifteen firms have won a place on the Framework for the construction of new academies which is worth around £14 billion. The framework is split between the North and the South and Client Partnerships for Schools said that it would start operating from December 2009 . The North and Midlands is expected to be worth around £1.5billion while the South is expected to be worth between £2bn and £2.5bn. Tim Byles, chief executive for Partnerships for Schools, said: “With contracts in the region of £500m coming to the market in the first five months alone, the new framework gives successful contractors access to a predictable flow of work, supported by direct government funding...The new framework will secure the future work stream, maintaining the focus on streamlined and accelerated delivery of education investment in academies, smaller BSF schemes and other education facilities, with the first schools to be procured through the new framework opering their gates in September 2012.” The successful bidders are: Sector 1: North and the Midlands
Balfour Beatty Construction
BAM Construction
Bovis Lend Lease
Carillion Construction
Clugston Construction
Interserve Projects Services
Kier Regional
Shepherd Construction
Sir Robert McAlpine
Vinci Construction
Wates
Willmott DixonSector 2: London, the South and the South and East of England Apollo Property Services Group
Balfour Beatty Construction
BAM Construction
Bovis Lend Lease
Carillion Construction
Interserve Project Services
JB Leadbitter
Kier Regional
Rydon Group
Sir Robert McAlpine
Wates
Willmott Dixon
A consortium le by Costain has reached financial close on the £230million Bradford Schools Phase 2 PFI Project.The Integrated Bradford consortium includes Costain, HSBC, Building Schools for the Future Investments and Amey Ventures. The scheme is part of the Bradford Building Schools for the Future Programme and includes the provision of four secondary schools for Bradford Metropolitan District Council.Design and construction of the schools will be provided by Educo, a Joint Venture between Costain and Ferrovial Agroman. Phase 1 of the Bradford BSF Programme provided for three new secondary schools, all of which are now in full operation. A further three new primary schools, currently in construction, will be handed over in early 2010.
Schools secretary, Ed Balls, has announced that 12 more local authorities will join the Building Schools for the Future programme(BSF), with £200million earmarked to build new primary reception classes.
Six local authorities have been given the go-ahead for their BSF programmes, schools secretary, Barnet, Bolton, Hampshire, Peterborough, Sunderland and Wigan are the first in what will be a series of “rolling starts” for the remaining 70 local authority projects yet to join BSF.
These developments will join more than 1,000 individual building, rebuilding or renewal BSF projects already under way across 80 local authorities in England.The six will immediately start planning, after £500m was released for 2011-12. The Sunderland development is worth £100million, with the remaining five each worth about £80million.
Another six local authority projects would be joining the programme in three months time, and a further six in the last quarter of 2009/2010.
As a result, the local authorities that are not yet part of the programme will be able to fast-track initial smaller projects far earlier than originally planned, with the rest of each area's schools being rebuilt or refurbished later.
Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said: “BSF is the most ambitious public building programme for decades, revamping the entire secondary school estate. The progress is undeniable - and BSF is building momentum rapidly month-by-month, term-by-term with superb facilities across the country transforming the way that teachers teach and young people learn...this is a watershed moment. The government is committed to seeing BSF through and today's announcement sets out our clear and unambiguous next steps."
According to a National Audit Office report published today, the Building Schools for the Future programme could be between £7-10billion over budget.In the report the Department for Children, Schools (DCSF) and Family and Partnership for Schools (PsS) admitted the programme was over budget. The National Audit Office (NAO) report has found that of 200 schools that should have been finished by the end of 2008, only 42 were completed.It also revealed that plans for the new schools were taking 18 months longer than expected to develop and that the programme would have a final bill of £52-55 billion. NAO head Tim Burr said: 'Partnerships for Schools and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) were too optimistic in their early plans.' Edward Leigh, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, said the DSCF's claims that it would open 250 schools a year by 2011 were 'fanciful'. '[The DCSF] underestimated both how long it would take to deliver refurbished or rebuilt schools and how much the programme would cost,' he added.
A consortium led by Laing O'Rourke won a £300million contract to build nine schools in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.The decision to award the contract to the BP4L consortium Barnsley Partnership for Learning) was made yesterday.
Laing O'Rourke and Bam were originally shortlisted in July 2007 alongside Skanska, but the Swedish contractor later dropped out.The first BSF schools in Barnsley were originally due to be open in September 2009, but the completion date is likely to be later following the delays to the construction programme. The BP4L team includes architects BDP, Atkins, Watson Batty and Allford Hall Monaghan Morris.
Some welcome news for the construction industry as Ed Balls, secretary of state for children, schools and families, confirmed that more than 1,500 rebuilding and refurbishment projects will begin now that 133 UK local authorities have been given the go-ahead.
A further 15 local authorities will receive advice on how to bring their plans up to speed within three months, to allow funding to be released.
More than 1,500 primary schools in England will be rebuilt or refurbished in the next two years under approved building plans valued at £3.55 billion due to be announced by the Government.
More than 350 primary schools will be newly built, new facilities will be constructed, and major refurbishment carried out at a further 850 schools and smaller building works will take place at another 350. The government will release £1.75billion of funding to local authorities for the Primary Capital programme, (PCP) with local authorities investing a further £1.8billion. The PCP is investing £7billion to rebuild or refurbish half of all primary schools and primary-age special schools by 2022/23. Mr Balls said: “This huge capital investment will not only improve the education of our children, but help to support jobs in the construction industry and local businesses who will be crucial to fitting out the new and refurbished schools....This is a once-in-a-generation chance to transform primary education in every part of the country - to sweep away buildings now reaching the end of their shelf life and drive up the quality of our schools. Schools are now being revolutionised by the biggest, sustained capital investment for 50 years.”
Ian Fordham, deputy chief executive of the British Council for School Environments, welcomed the announcement saying “The key now is to ensure this money is well spent in a commonsense way...It must complement other, broader educational agendas such as the Children's Plan, and the general health and wellbeing of young people, to ensure a long-term legacy for our children and our communities.”
The government has confirmed this week that its £45billion school-building programme is facing serious delays.Schools minister Jim Knight admitted in a parliament that 12 projects had been delayed in the first wave of Building Schools for the Future, seven delayed in wave two, and five in wave three. Shadow schools secretary Michael Gove said"Gordon Brown's school building project is woefully behind schedule; billions of pounds are being spent but children and parents are not seeing the results...The Government is failing to deliver on its flagship education project. As the building gets more and more behind schedule, the costs are rising all the time." Jim Knight responded by saying “As you would expect of a programme of this scale, there have been challenges, and lessons have been learned from the early projects.” The local authorities with the longest delays in wave 1 were Newham, originally anticipated for completion in January 2009 but now set to finish in March 2011; and Greenwich, originally set to complete in April 2009 but now expected to open in September 2011.
In wave 3, the Luton BSF programme has been delayed for 26 months and will now not open until September 2012. The government said “issues around identifying new sites for new schools” were behind the delay.
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