Interserve has been named preferred bidder for a £50m facilities management contract by Ealing LBC. The 10-year contract is worth £5m a year for the core sites and comes with the potential to provide additional services to any of the borough's 91 schools which choose to opt in. Interserve will manage 237 council buildings including offices, libraries, listed town halls, sports and leisure centres, cemeteries and residential and sheltered housing. Together these have a floor area of more than 230,000sq m. The deal is expected to drive efficiency savings through improved back office processes and increase initiatives such as mobile working. The schools which may opt in, ranging from nurseries to high schools, have a total floor area of over 300,000 sq m. Modernising IT provision for schools is a significant headache for local authorities due top the growing demand for computer use to be integrated into the wider curriculum. Interserve chief executive, Adrian Ringrose, said: ‘These wins demonstrate there are good opportunities in our markets. The sectors we are focused on are resilient and we are reaping the benefits of our strategy of developing long-term client relationships.'