It’s hard to miss the back-to-school feel of the first week of September, even if you don’t have kids. The switch from summer holidays to autumn term can be a shock to the system – heavier morning traffic or commuter trains crammed to bursting, not to mention the mad scramble to buy the right school uniform – but it also offers the prospect of a new start. 

Such fresh-faced optimism is, however, harder to find among construction firms working in the schools sector. In fact, many contractors and consultants with expertise in this area are starting this academic year worried about the lack of work coming onto their books.

Of course we all know the workload has been stripped back since the heady days of the £55bn Building Schools for the Future programme of the Blair/Brown era – today’s economic and political context is so dramatically changed that such extravagant spending is hard to recall. Since then the focus has been very much on prioritising the schools in the worst condition, standardising designs to drive through efficiencies, and supplying ever more school places as the pupil population boomed.

“Contractors and consultants in the schools sector are starting this academic year worried about the lack of work coming onto their books”

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