At last, the government has launched the privately financed element of its school building programme
And so, it’s finally happening. In a move that, for those involved in school building, has seemed as long in coming as the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson from Manchester United, the government is finally to launch its privately financed schools programme to market.
The privately financed element of the Priority School Building Programme, starting more than a year after it was first expected, will see more than 200 schools with a construction value of £1.75bn built under the government’s new PF2 model.
For construction firms whose education teams have survived on scraps of work since the 2010 cancellation of the £55bn Building Schools for the Future programme, not to mention those schools which will now be able to replace desperately outdated and dilapidated buildings, the relief is palpable.
And yet the sense of progress that the launch of the programme brings will need to be tempered with a heavy dose of realism. With an untested financing model, a shortened bidding process and a recently introduced set of design specifications, not to mention the extremely tight funding constraints, this is a programme of work which is bound to experience its fair share of teething problems.
That’s completely to be expected - and, as long as both clients and companies understand that the programme is likely to evolve as it progresses, developments in design and delivery can only be to the benefit of those involved. But one area which needs to be at the top of the “watch” list by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) must be the prices being offered for work.
In a market which has been starved of a pipeline of work for so long, it seems inevitable that the first batches of schools to be released will attract a high number of bidders as contractors strive to get a foot in the door - much as happened with the capital-funded batches of schools which have already been released to market by the EFA.
However, with companies already acknowledging that it will be tough to meet the EFA’s guideline price of £1,465/m2 and turn a profit, officials will need to be alert to any signs of waning market enthusiasm - because this programme, with all the difficult constraints around it, can only deliver schools that will stand the test of time if the most capable and innovative architects and contractors consider it worth their while to be involved.
The involvement of such firms is not just crucial to the successful redevelopment of the schools included in this PF2 programme. The 700,000 extra primary places needed by 2020 to meet the needs of a rapidly growing school-age population, and the two-thirds of England’s secondary school estate untouched by the last government’s investment under Building Schools for the Future, will also require firms to have the confidence to invest in developing solutions quickly and with quality. The steady pipeline of work that the PF2 programme offers could give firms just this opportunity - as long as it is managed with care.
Sarah Richardson, editor
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