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UK
Education Capital Expenditure
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Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Programme is
the largest single capital investment programme in schools in
England in 50 years. It is aimed at rebuilding and renewing all of
England’s 3,500 state secondary schools – a programme worth an
estimated £45bn. BSF is also intended to have a wider effect
on teaching and learning as a whole and engage both students and
their local communities in new or refurbished school buildings with
new technologies.
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Government
spending on education is forecast to be the single largest investment in
UK construction in the next five years. In late 2007, the Government
announced £21.9bn of capital investment allocations to local authorities
to raise the standard of school buildings with state-of-the-art classroom,
arts, sports and ICT facilities over the next three years Current levels
of capital expenditure in the education sector stand at around £6.4bn and
are forecast to rise by around 5% over the next couple of years
Current investment in BSF is providing around £2.2bn of capital
investment in 2007-08, representing around 40% of total capital
spending in the schools sector. Investment over the next three years
to 2011 is expected to total around £9.3bn, averaging around £3.1bn per
year. The Programme includes both conventional and PFI funding and in the
current financial year, around 55% of funding will be covered by private
finance mainly for new build projects. Overall, around £7.7bn of PFI
credits will be available under the BSF programme to 2011.
Some 72 local education authorities (LEAs) are already involved in
the Programme, with 16 authorities joining in January 2008. Around 1,000
secondary schools, special schools and academies currently have planning
permission, with almost 450 expected to be built by 2011.
The
Programme is, however, considerably behind schedule and, to date,
just 10 schools have opened including 6 smaller refurbishment schemes. A
further 2 schools are due to open by the end of the 2007-08 financial year
taking the total to 12, compared with the original target of 100 during
this timescale. The original timetable under the Programme
envisaged around 350 completed schools by the end of 2008, but this has
since been revised to 100 due to longer than expected planning and
procurement processes in the early waves of BSF.
The
£5bn Academies programme is however making good progress on its
original target of 200 academies by 2010, with 83 Academies opened at the
end of 2007 and a further 88 in development. Over 30 academies are planned
to open in each of the next two years, increasing the total from 83 in
2007 to around 145 by 2009. The Government now aims to establish 400
academies by 2010 – double the figure originally planned.
The
private sector is showing considerable interest in BSF and there are
currently around 20 consortia bidding for BSF projects. There is a
diverse spread of expertise within those consortia, with a general shift
away from traditional PFI schools with contractor-led consortia to those
with a more balanced representation including ICT and education specialist
partners.
There is a general consensus among
construction firms and related professional services that the BSF
procurement process is being mismanaged and has, to date, been far too
bureaucratic. Local authorities are also perceived to have insufficient
experience in setting up Local Education Partnerships to take BSF schemes
forward. It is hoped that lessons can be
learned from projects currently in procurement and that those authorities
which have suffered delays have been able to resolve problems and come up
with workable proposals for schemes coming into the process at later
stages, and avoid any repetition of the same delays and difficulties.
AMA Research’s report “Building
Schools for the Future” is available in hard copy or electronic format
for £625 and can be ordered online at
www.amaresearch.co.uk
or by calling 0871 3103450. |
