Construction leaders say school building programme is in Treasury’s sights

Industry figures fear that the government has Building Schools for the Future in its sights after the Treasury warned that “tough decisions will need to be made on reducing costs” on the scheme.

Last week in a statement announcing £10.5bn worth of cuts or delays to government projects the Treasury said that it would take decisions on the scheme soon.

“Tough decisions will need to be made on reducing costs and addressing where spending has been over-committed,” it said.

Andy Geldard, head of communications at Willmott Dixon, warned that BSF “is in the government’s sights.”

“Capital spending will continue in some form but evolve towards being more needs based, and there will be less of it around,” he predicted.

However, Geldard said that projects close to preferred bidder stage “are still moving ahead.”

One source involved in consulting on BSF projects also said that they were still entering bids for the schemes.

“We continue to received invitations to bid for work, and we are continuing to bid for work under BSF,” he said.

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