Six local authorities to join Building Schools for the Future programme

15 July 2009

Ed Balls, Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, today announced that six local authorities have been given the go ahead to join the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. The authorities are Barnet, Bolton, Hampshire, Peterborough, Sunderland and Wigan and are the first in a series of ‘rolling starts’ for the 70 councils which have yet to join BSF and follow on projects in existing BSF authorities.

Mr Balls also announced six new local authority projects will join the programme every three months in 2009/10, meaning that 18 new projects will join the programme before the end of the financial year.

Momentum has built quickly this year with 86 schools benefitting from BSF now open, more than double the number in December 2008, and 37 deals have now reached financial close. Despite a tough economic climate, a £239 million deal in Southwark, a £125 million deal in Luton and £128 million (including PFI credits) deal in Barnsley have all been struck this year. The latter is the largest PFI credits deal in 2009 so far. Current local authority projections are for 115 BSF schools to open in 2009/10 and 165 in 2010/11.

Mr Balls, said:

"The Government's unprecedented investment in school buildings and new facilities has benefitted every school in every area of the country. As well as transforming the education of children, our investment is supporting local jobs and businesses, particularly in the construction industry. That's why we have brought forward almost £1 billion of capital investment for schools this year to support the economy during the recession.

“BSF is the most ambitious public building programme for decades revamping the entire secondary school estate. The progress is undeniable – and BSF is building momentum rapidly month-by-month, term-by-term with superb facilities across the country transforming the way that teachers teach and young people learn.

“This is a watershed moment. The Government is committed to seeing BSF through and today’s announcement sets out our clear and unambiguous next steps.

“These are challenging times when every penny of taxpayer’s money is rightly scrutinised - but I am clear that allowing six new projects joining BSF each quarter this year is prudent and affordable and means that areas will benefit as soon as possible.”

Partnerships for Schools Chief Executive Tim Byles, said:

 "Today's announcement of continued commitment sends a clear message to local authorities, schools and parents the length and breadth of the country that BSF will provide 21st century schools for every young person.

"As well as delivering the brand new facilities that teachers and pupils deserve to every community, this commitment safeguards tens of thousands of jobs on the ground in what continue to be challenging economic conditions.

"Teachers, parents and pupils in the 86 schools already open bear witness to the positive difference that BSF is making in their local community. Building on the work already done, we will work in partnership with the new authorities as we move into the second half of the programme to ensure that this experience and impact is replicated across the country.

"More broadly, as we assume responsibility for the delivery of all schools capital programmes in the next few months, we will be working with every local authority in England to ensure that taxpayers get maximum value from every education pound spent.”The shift to rolling starts rather than waves of local authorities joining the programme was announced and consulted on in April 2008.

Notes to Editors:

1. Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is the largest single schools capital investment programme for over 50 years. The aim is to rebuild or renew England’s state secondary schools estate during the lifetime of the programme.
2. Partnerships for Schools (PfS) is the delivery organisation for Building Schools for the Future. PfS was established in April 2004 as a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB). PfS is a 120-strong organisation, with specialist expertise including educationalists, designers, ICT specialists, commercial managers and project management.
3. The preliminary revised national BSF programme was announced in March 2009 – with the six local authorities announced today and all subsequent proposed projects only getting the go-ahead after rigorous evaluation of their Readiness to Deliver (RtD) documents by BSF agency, Partnerships for Schools (PfS). In the RtD process, seven areas are evaluated; transformational overview, deliverability, investment strategy, affordability, resources and capability, benefits realisation and joint local authority projects.
4. Local authorities not yet in BSF can fast-track initial smaller projects far earlier than originally planned - with the rest of each area's schools being rebuilt or refurbished later. This allows larger local authorities to split their full BSF building programme into smaller stages in order to make projects more manageable.
5. Building work to transform education in the six local authorities announced today is due to start from 2011. Ministers expect that the vast majority of local authorities to have finished their projects by 2020, with the remaining areas in the final stages of renewing their estate.
6. 85 local authorities are now engaged in the BSF programme, with 21 Local Education Partnerships formed to deliver school building projects in these areas. Almost 90 schools have now benefitted from BSF investment across England.
7. For more information see: www.partnershipsforschools.org.uk/programme/school_search.jsp
8. The National Audit Office report into BSF, published in February 2009, stated that the programme is now being well managed and that PfS is keeping costs under control. It added: “BSF schools have been built to a higher specification and space standards than previous schools”
9. The Minister for Schools announced in June that PfS is to assume responsibility for the management and delivery of all school building and refurbishment programmes from 1 October 2009. Day-to-day responsibility of schools capital programmes, including the Primary Capital Programme, will transfer from the DSCF to PfS.

CONTACT DETAILS

For more information please contact: communications@partnershipsforschools.org.uk