Interserve has won the £150m job to build the first batch of privately-financed schools to be built under the government’s flagship school building programme

Schoold design

Interserve has won the £150m job to build the first batch of private finance schools to be built under the government’s flagship school building programme.

The Education Funding Agency announced today that a consortium between Interserve and investor Kajima has been chosen for the batch of seven secondary schools located across Hertfordshire, Luton and Reading.

The Interserve and Kajima team beat Wates and Morgan Sindall to the Priority School Building Programme job.

The batch of schools is the first of five batches to be procured through the government’s new Pf2 private finance initiative.

The EFA said construction is due to start from November 2014 through to March 2015, with planned completion due for August 2016.

It will use a version of the PF2 model, called the “aggregator model”, which will use an organisation to provide debt funding for all batches, rather than each batch having to secure its own funding.

The official contract notice issued by the EFA said contractors would be asked to design, build, finance and maintain the new build schools.

It said services required are “likely to include hard facilities management services and may also include some soft facilities services”.

The schools in the batch include:

  • Bishop’s Hatfield Girls’ School, Hatfield, Hertfordshire (Academy)
  • Goffs School, near Cheshunt, Hertfordshire (Academy)
  • Kings Langley School, Kings Langley, Hertfordshire (Academy)
  • Longdean School, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire (Academy)
  • Reading Girls’ School, Reading, Berkshire (Foundation)
  • Stopsley High School, Luton, Bedfordshire (Foundation)
  • Westfield Academy, Watford, Hertfordshire (Academy)