Financial close on Midlands School Programme

Significant progress for Carillion project.

Carillion has reached financial close on the Midlands Priority School Building Programme, an initiative set to improve education facilities for the eight schools comprising the Midlands private finance batch.

PSBP Midlands Limited, one of the company’s joint ventures, has finalised the agreement of £187M for construction and support services revenue. Carillion will also invest some £5.5M of equity in the project.

The Midlands Priority School Building Programme constitutes a 25 year private finance concession contract informed by the UK government’s Private Finance 2 (PF2) model.

It comes as part of the government’s £750M Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) which allows the Education Funding Agency to manage the replacement and upgrading of selected schools in England.

The Midlands Priority Schools Building Programme will ensure improved facilities and outcomes for both students and staff by replacing existing substandard buildings.

Carillion will provide high quality sustainable structures to support teaching and learning at the following eight schools:

• 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

Amongst the improvements will be ARK Kings Academy’s new Climate controlled classrooms and sports facilities. The three-court sports hall and dance studio demonstrates how the programme also hopes to benefit the local area generally by offering community access.

Carillion meanwhile will make use of the programme’s potential for training and apprenticeships.

Richard Howson, Carillion Chief Executive, 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.”

Carillion is also to deliver hard facilities management and life cycle maintenance services, expected to generate £49M of revenue over the concession contract’s 25 years.

Construction itself is to be completed within a two-year period.

 

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