Government snubs PfS

The Government has snubbed the delivery body responsible for its £45bn secondary schools building programme by declining to give it responsibility for a new £7bn package for primary schools.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) will instead administer the Primary Capital programme directly rather than use Partnerships for Schools, its established delivery body for education projects. Contractors have previously criticised PfS for its slow progress on BSF.

In related news, Skanska has broken the record for the most expensive failed BSF bid, after it was revealed the contractor spent a massive £5m preparing its submission for the £600m first phase of Kent’s £1.8bn programme.

A source told Building magazine that the highly bureaucratic BSF bidding process was partly to blame for the sum, and in particular the amount of design work the team had to prepare. The Skanska team, which included architects from Atkins, Make, Flacq, dRMM and DSDHA had to prepare seven sample school designs. Other costs included hiring PR companies and exhibition space to promote the bid to the public. The contract was eventually awarded to Land Securities Trillium in November last year.

Finally, the European Investment Bank (EIB) has said it will put together a £500m funding rescue package for up to five privately financed BSF schemes.

‘The beauty is the EIB is able to fund 50% of the projects’ senior debt requirements. The bank is offering more favourable terms than commercial banks,’ said Paul Milner, director of PfS. ‘It has expressed interest in funding a number of projects in the early part of the new year,’ Contract Journal quoted him as saying. However, the fates of 18 other privately financed BSF schemes due to close by December 2009 remain uncertain.