The delivery body for the government’s £45bn school building programme is working up details of the expanded academies framework that will be launched early next year.

Officials at Partnerships for Schools are in discussions over the details of the revamped contractors’ framework for the academies programme. It has also announced that the framework will extend beyond its current 2010 deadline.

The scheme is expected to be opened up to contractors not on the current framework. Those currently on the list are Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Kier, Laing O’Rourke, Skanska and Willmott Dixon.

Options under discussion are thought to include encouraging councils to incorporate primary schools into academy schemes. The government had previously announced a £9bn capital building programme for the primary sector.

A revamped academies framework would be welcomed by the industry as a counterweight to the private sector downturn.

Schools secretary Ed Balls has said that another 70 schools could become academies under plans to force poorly performing schools to improve standards or be replaced with academies.

Postscript

For more on the academies programme, search www.building.co.uk/archive