What's the future of school building under the Tories?

This Thursday I’ll be hosting a very topical live online panel discussion that will be of interest to all construction professionals who work in the schools sector and want to know more about the new Conservative government’s plans for school building.

The Conservative party’s election manifesto only made passing reference to school building - pledging to build 500 free schools over the next parliament. But now the dust has settled after polling day it’s clear that the shortage of school places in England is reaching a crisis point, and the free schools programme will not solve it alone.

Now the dust has settled after polling day it’s clear that the shortage of school places in England is reaching a crisis point, and the free schools programme will not solve it alone

A recent in-depth feature by my colleague Joey Gardiner highlighted the problem: between now and 2023 we will need 800,000 extra school places but the capital funding for schools will be cut by 16% over the next five years compared with the previous five.

So where does this leave the construction professionals keen to deliver schools the country desperately needs? For those who want to win work in this sector it is crucial to know which school building programmes are likely to release significant funding for projects, how project teams can make the most of limited resources, how design quality can be upheld on tight budgets and iff financial constraints could have an impact on the amount of work in repair and maintenance of schools.

All of these pressing issues, and many more, will be tackled by a panel of school building experts from across the industry, which includes:

• Caroline Buckingham, Director and head of education, HLM
• Marcus Fagent, Head of education and children’s services, EC Harris
• Stephen Beechey, Group strategy director and MD government affairs, Wates.

I will be chairing the one hour debate at 11am on Thursday 11 June and I’d be delighted if you could join me - there will be a Q&A session where you can ask any member of the panel a question related to the challenges in the schools sector.

Sarah Richardson, Building editor