Consultant EC Harris anticipates that the government’s decision to pump a further £2bn into the Priority School Building Programme for rebuilds and major refurbishments could benefit around 500 schools.
The funding, available from 2015, comes on top of the £2.4bn already allocated to the coalition’s PSBP existing schools programme covering 261 schools, and will accommodate the replacement of single blocks on school estates as well as entire schools.
Marcus Fagent, head of education at EC Harris, said: “The PSBP2 announcement made today is positive news for schools, trusts, dioceses and local authorities. The £2bn programme provides a significant additional slug of funding which is on top of the annual condition monies that schools receive."
"That the money has been released not also reflects the efficiency and speed with which the Education Funding Agency is delivering the original PSBP programme which looks to repair 261 schools. The spend per school can be expected to be lower via PSBP2 as it is predominantly focused on replacing single blocks and so it could be that this extra funding will allow another 500 or more schools in England to be repaired.”
Stephen Beechey, managing director of education and investment at Wates Construction, added:“The decision to expand its pool of funding for those schools most in need of repair and refurbishment is a positive step towards delivering on the recommendations contained in the 2011 James Review of Education Capital.”
He added: “More broadly, the cost of reactive maintenance jobs at schools is often significant, and is an issue that needed to be grasped firmly by the Department for Education to truly replenish the nation’s school estate. With ‘PSBP 2’, potential contractors should now enjoy a level of certainty on procurement and pipeline that wasn’t previously available to them… this will allow firms to coordinate their efforts and plan ahead that much more efficiently.”
"The cost of reactive maintenance jobs at schools is often significant, and is an issue that needed to be grasped firmly by the Department for Education to truly replenish the nation’s school estate."
Stephen Beechey, Wates
Providing details of the new funding package, schools minister David Laws said: “The original Programme worked on the basis of the condition of the whole school site. We will now refine this to look at targeting individual school buildings, as well as whole school rebuilds where this is appropriate, so that the department can focus much more tightly on addressing specific issues in the estate. This is only possible thanks to the data coming out of our detailed condition survey, which will be complete by the Summer and give us a detailed pattern of need which will be a useful tool for targeting the available resources most effectively."
At EC Harris, Fagent suggested that schools applying for PSBP2 funding would have to do so before the summer break, and would need to commission surveys and advisors quickly.
Meanwhile, a total of 28 schools are now either under construction or already completed under the original PSBP, while design work has started on 234 schools. All schools in phase one of the programme will be delivered by the end of 2017, two years earlier than originally planned.
Wates has also delivered the first PSBP schools to open its doors to pupils. Whitmore Park Primary School in Coventry is a £5m design and build project which took just 13 weeks to procure and 11 months to construct. It comprises a new build primary school for 630 pupils and a 39-place nursery, located either side of a central hub comprising an entrance, studio and hall.
Announcing the school’s opening, Laws said: “The opening of Whitmore Park marks a major milestone in the Priority School Building Programme, which is making great strides in ensuring that vital building work takes place at some of the schools in the worst state across the country. It is providing much better value for money than previous school building schemes, and forms part of the government’s drive to deliver the best schools for young people in order to help deliver both a stronger economy and a fairer society.”
