By Paul Marinko Bristol City has become the first council to finalise a Building Schools for the Future (BSF) deal, but the news has been met with concern about the national programme’s financial security. The council’s deal with construction firm Skanska will see £173m invested in building new schools and refurbishing others across the city over the next 10 years. Bristol’s executive member for children and young people, Jos Clark, said: ‘The partnership, and all it brings to Bristol, demonstrates that BSF is so much more than new buildings. Funding for the programme will come mainly from private-finance initiative credits worth £150.7m, and £9.5m of the council’s own money. Skanska’s director of education, Barry White, said: ‘Having developed the project over the last 18 months, it is now very exciting to be delivering first class schools for Bristol.’ BSF is the Government’s flagship education policy and is aiming to rebuild or renew all England’s 3,500 state secondary schools over the next 15 years. But some councils remain concerned about possible financial pitfalls in the programme. Speaking during an event organised by government-funded PFI specialist 4ps at the Local Government Association’s annual conference in Bournemouth, Southwark LBC’s executive member for resources, Toby Eckersley, highlighted his council’s concerns with the project. He warned that programmes could collapse halfway through, and councils needed an insurance company or government prepared to underwrite the risk. But, he said, there was nothing currently written into the plan to guarantee this, leaving councils in danger of having to foot the bill. 4ps’ programme director, Martin Lipson, admitted it would not be known if such a risk existed until it arose. p.marinko@hgluk.com
