Government reveals £4bn academies framework

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Fifteen contractors make Partnerships for Schools list but Galliford Try and Morgan Ashurst miss out

Big name contractors including Galliford Try and Morgan Ashurst have missed out on a place on the £4bn academies framework being run by the government’s education capital spend quango Partnerships for Schools.

Galliford Try and Morgan Ashurst join Laing O’Rourke and Skanska, eliminated at the short-listing stage, with 15 firms making the final cut. Balfour Beatty, Bovis, Carillion , Kier, Sir Robert McAlpine, Wates and Willmott Dixon all made it on to the framework, which PfS said would generate £500m of work in its first five months form December.

The framework is split into a northern and southern region to allow medium-sized contractors to bid, with 12 firms covering each area. Nine of the firms made it on to both frameworks, with six being listed in either the northern or southern frameworks alone.

This included French construction giant Vinci, which made it onto the Northern list but failed to convince PfS of its offer in London, the south and south-east.

Galliford Try and Morgan Ashurst were just the biggest names to fail to make it on to the framework after making the May shortlist, with five others suffering the same fate, including Miller and Bowmer & Kirkland.

The current framework, which has six members, expires in December next year. Current members Laing O’Rourke and Skanska were eliminated from the new framework when the shortlist was drawn up in May.

As well as new academies, the framework will also be used to find contractors for schemes under the Primary Capital programme, and for smaller BSF programmes.

PfS chief executive Tim Byles said the first schools to be built under the framework would open their doors in September 2012, and that it would deliver increasing cost savings.

He said: “Through the existing PfS National Framework, the cost of procuring new Academy schools has already reduced by around 30% delivering excellent value for money to the taxpayer."

"The new framework, creates more opportunities for large and medium-sized construction companies across the country, during what are undoubtedly challenging times for the sector.”

The full list of winners are: