Friday 9th May 2014
The Government has announced this week plans to extend the Priority Schools Building Programme over the 2015-2021 Spending Review Period. David Laws the Schools Minister announced this week a plan to commit an additional £2billion over this period to those schools with the most urgent condition issues.
The material published so far is available online at:-
https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/education-spending
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/priority-school-building-programme-2-psbp2
The application process will begin shortly, although full details have not yet been published. However those interested will need to be ready to move quickly as the application window will only be open until the end of the summer term.
The guidance states that Local authorities, dioceses, academies and multi academy trusts can submit expressions of interest; however nothing is said about Governing Bodies of Foundation Schools, or non-Diocesan trustees of VA schools. We are querying this with EFA and will report back.
PSBP continues to be about addressing the schools with the most urgent condition issues, and EFA are stressing that the threshold for inclusion will be very high, with lower priority projects to be funded through other programs such as Academies Capital Maintenance Fund.
A notable difference from phase 1 of PSBP is that the inclusion of individual buildings will be possible as opposed to just whole school sites. There is also a suggestion that refurbishment and not just rebuild projects will be included.
What has not been said so far is how PSBP2 will be funded. The emphasis with the first phase has shifted significantly towards capital grant funding, with far fewer Private Finance projects than originally intended. This may depend on the financial position after the election.
We will be publishing more material as it becomes available shortly, as well as a progress report on PSBP so far and our experiences.
For more information please contact:
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