Out-Law News 2 min. read
18 Jan 2013, 11:54 am
The survey by Building Magazine showed that 46% of local authorities and 41% of schools would consider buying a fully pre-designed building, while a further 27% of local authorities and 40% of schools would consider purchasing standardised units. A similar survey published in August 2011 found that only 18% of local authorities and 11% of schools would consider a standardised design for a whole school.
The Government published standard design guidance for the schools that will be built under its Priority School Building Programme (PBSP) in October. Use of the designs, which cover two secondary schools for 1,200 pupils and a primary school for 420 pupils, is not mandatory; however schools will not be able to spend more than what it would cost to construct a school to those specifications.
The PSBP replaced the previous government's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme, which was cancelled in July 2010. The programme, which has been heavily delayed, is intended to address the needs of the schools in the worst condition in the country, with funding resources allocated from a set budget according to need. The Government named the 261 schools due to receive funding under the scheme in May last year.
Of those schools, 42 deemed to be "in the very worst condition" or those for children with special educational needs will receive a share of a Government capital grant to complete the work, while the remaining projects are due to funded by way of private finance arrangements worth up to £2bn. As announced in December, this element will be procured using the Government's new 'PF2' approach to the private financing of public infrastructure.
According to the Government, the use of standardised designs could cut as much as 30% of the costs of school building. However infrastructure law expert Graham Robinson of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that even bigger savings were possible if the underlying processes were modernised and made more efficient.
"Achieving lower cost school buildings is critical, but standardised schools require an intelligent approach to procurement," he said. "This should include standardised supply chains, standardised design processes, high levels of off-site manufacturing, improved logistics and the use of building information modelling (BIM) technologies linked to standard choices of components and systems. It is possible to deliver school buildings for at least 40% less than we have seen under the BSF programme."
Procurement of the 42 schools to be directly funded by the Government under the PSBP continued this week when the London batch of schools was released for preliminary invitation to tender. Worth around £50m, it is the third of eight batches of schools put out to tender since the programme began. Decisions on the first two batches, Midlands 1 and the North-east, is expected at the end of this month while Midlands 2 and East of England tenders are expected to be issued next week.
Infrastructure law expert Kate Orviss of Pinsent Masons said that in most cases individual schools would not have the opportunity to choose between a custom or standard design as the programme was to be centrally procured.
"Reducing the capital cost and shortening the procurement timetable is the bigger issue," she said. "There have been huge improvements on the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) days in this regard already, under the Academies Framework; which is also the framework under which the 42 directly funded schools are being procured. The Education Funding Agency (EFA) has said that it does not think it will be able to improve much more on these efficiencies."
"The bigger issue is when the privately financed batches will come out. The EFA is currently looking at financing structures, both for the whole programme and individual projects. It is interesting that it is taking it upon itself to consider the options, when the market had interpreted the PF2 announcement as leaving that to the private sector," she said.
