Carillion secures financial close on £187m school building programme

INFRASTRUCTURE and facilities management group Carillion has achieved financial close on a new multi-million pound school building programme.

The Wolverhampton-based group is the contractor for the Midlands Priority School Building Programme private finance batch, which aside from the £187m of construction and support services revenue, also sees an equity investment of £5.5m.

The programme is being steered by a Carillion joint venture, PSBP Midlands. The MPSBP is a 25-year private finance concession contract (or Public Private Partnership) using the Government’s PF2 model.

The programme is intended to improve education facilities for pupils and staff at eight schools across the Midlands. The current school buildings are all considered substandard.

The new schools will be constructed over a two-year period and meet modern standards in quality and sustainability, as well as secure a valuable resource for their local communities.

Carillion expects to invest around £5.5m of equity in the project and will also build the schools at a capital cost of £138m.  Hard facilities management and life-cycle maintenance services will also be delivered by Carillion and these services are expected to generate approximately £49m of revenue over the life of the concession contract.   

The group said it would use the programme to provide new training and apprenticeship opportunities, and promised to source as much as it could from local suppliers.

Richard Howson, chief executive, Carillion, said: “We are delighted to have achieved financial close on this important schools programme.  Carillion is a market leader in the education sector, having delivered some 150 schools over recent years, many of which were Public Private Partnership projects.
 
“This latest project has been an excellent example of collaboration between the public and private sectors and we look forward to working with the Education Funding Agency to deliver state of the art facilities to support its objectives for creating outstanding learning environments for students.”

The schools in the Midlands Priority Programme are:

Alfreton Grange Arts College, Derbyshire
ARK Kings Academy, Birmingham
Greenwood Academy, Birmingham
Plantsbrook School, Birmingham
President Kennedy School, Coventry
The Phoenix Collegiate, Sandwell
The Queen Elizabeth Academy, Warwickshire
Top Valley Academy, Nottingham