Revealed: EFA picks winners for £5bn schools framework

The government’s schools capital agency has picked the winning contractors for its new £5bn framework for refurbishment and smaller new build schools jobs, Building can reveal.

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) announced last year it would bring forward a new regional framework for schools work, which will comprise mainly refurbishment and remodelling work with some new build and is set to be worth as much as £5bn over four years.

Now the agency has picked 16 winning firms for the six regional lots that make up the framework, with Bam Construction and Kier the big winners, taking a place on all six of the regional lots.

Other big winners include Bowmer & Kirkland with five lots, and Shepherd with four lots.

The EFA shortlisted 37 firms for the framework in April, with Morgan Sindall and Wates among the firms to have not made the final cut.

A formal announcement on the framework winners is expected next week.

The framework will be used for the EFA’s capital programmes, including free schools, University Technical Colleges, academies and basic need and other programmes.

But it will also be made available to other bodies such as local authorities, academies trusts and individual schools.

The EFA said the value of the projects will typically range between £3m and £5m, but could includes projects from as little as £200,000 up to £10m.

The framework scheduled to begin operating in July 2014.