Education

Following the confusing announcements about which projects have been affected, Glenigan has published a new report “BSF – the aftermath” to provide clarity about the status of every BSF project.

Education projects accounted for almost 19% of all UK construction project starts in the last 18 months, according to Glenigan. The cancellation of the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF), worth £55 billion means 715 schools around England and Wales will not be built or refurbished.

The impact on the sector over the next two years will be dramatic. Projects cancelled totalled £12 billion due to start in 2010, £22 billion in 2011 and £24 billion in 2012. Projects worth £5.8 billion are unaffected; however starts may fall back sharply to only £466 million by 2012. Projects worth £873 million are under review and projects worth £5 billion have been scaled back.

Under BSF, 12 schools were completed by April 2008, with a further 42 and 115 completions in the 2008/9 and 2009/10 financial years. This was scheduled to accelerate to 200 schools a year by 2011/12.

Allan Wilen, economics director, Glenigan, commented: “Boosted by this large scale government Investment, Glenigan recorded an 18% rise in the value of underlying education projects starting on site during 2008 and a further 11% increase last year. Public funding and public private partnership funding together accounted for over 80% of all education projects from January 2009 to June this year, according to Glenigan start on site data.”

Wilen continued: “The immediate impact of the government''s announcement on the flow of schools projects and construction output will be moderated by the fact that the last year, indeed the last few months, have seen a surge in projects reaching financial close. These will help support sector activity over the coming year.”

In total there are some 700 schools that have already opened, started on site, or reached financial close. Many of the axed projects were at a very early stage of development and were not scheduled to start on site until 2013 at the earliest.

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