£150m NW schools project boost

BUILDING and maintenance group Interserve has been named preferred bidder for a £150m schools project in St Helens.

The listed company is the lead partner in the Environments for Learning (E4L) consortium, which has been chosen by  St Helens Council for its Building Schools for the Future initiative.

Interserve will build two schools, with a capital cost of £47m in the first phase at Rainford High Technology College and De La Salle School.

Rainford will be financed using the private finance initiative (PFI) and Interserve will provide facilities management services worth £8m to the school over a 25-year period once complete.

Six further schools, worth an aggregate of over £100m in construction costs, have been identified for subsequent development. Two of these will be procured through PFI.

Interserve’s chief executive, Adrian Ringrose, commented, “St Helens Council has clearly shown its commitment to providing children in the area with the latest educational facilities, and we will play our part in ensuring that the schools we build will deliver the benefits the community needs.

“Interserve is one of the country’s most experienced and successful companies in creating schools through BSF. This is our third such development programme, alongside Sandwell in the West Midlands and our award-winning partnership at Leeds.”