Barking and Dagenham council picks Laing O’Rourke as preferred bidder, at expense of Bouygues

Laing O’Rourke has won a £270m BSF deal from Barking and Dagenham council.

The contractor has beaten off competition from Bougyues to be named preferred bidder on the scheme.

The fact that the project has reached preferred bidder stage makes it much more likely to survive the government’s forthcoming review of BSF programmes.

It is expected that schemes that have not reached preferred bidder will be frozen within weeks as the government seeks to reprioritise its education investment.

Under the deal, Laing O’Rourke will rebuild or renew every secondary school in the borough, as well as Trinity Special School.