Joint venture partners includes Capita Symonds, which will provide design services on schools programme

Carillion has been appointed as preferred bidder for the £208m Nottingham Building Schools for the Future programme.

The JV partnership with Local Education Partnership will build or refurbish eight schools and potentially deliver three new academy schools.

Capita Symonds is also part of the consortium and will provide partnering, educational and buiding design services on the project.

Its design division, Capita Architecture, will provide architectural services.

Carillion’s construction contract is worth £180m and it will deliver FM for three of the schools in a contract worth about £28m.

Work is expected to being in mid-2008 and be completed by the end of 2010.

Carillion will invest equity of about £2.25m in the project.

Carillion chief executive, John McDonough, said: 'We are delighted to have achieved preferred bidder status on our third project under the BSF rogramme.”

McDonough says that through bio-diesel combined heat and power technology, up to 70% of energy will be generated using on-site renewables.