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It has been discovered that hundreds of school buildings in England that suffer from age and leaks have still not been assigned constructors, despite being part of a government rebuilding programme. The School Rebuilding Programme began in 2020 and is set to run for a decade. It aims to refurbish or rebuild roughly 500 schools across England with construction scheduled to commence in 2021 at a rate of about 50 schools per year. However, the National Audit Office found the DfE forecast last year that it would complete fewer projects than initially intended. And it seems that the DfE has subsequently reassured that targets are still on track while industry experts have pointed out that high inflation has negatively impacted the construction industry making some firms nervous of taking on contracts should costs run over budget.
Over 500 schools are included in the project, with contracts for just 62 to be rebuilt having been awarded by summer of this year. Currently, information obtained from a Freedom of Information request indicates that most schools on the rebuilding programme still do not have builders on board. A number of companies are cautious about signing on to the project for fear that costs may exceed budget limitations. Nevertheless, the DfE remains optimistic that the programme will remain on track.
One example in this report is the situation at the Patchway Community School in Bristol that was added to the rebuilding programme last year and has experienced a delay of at least one year after the construction company signed on to rebuild the school pulled out, citing difficulties in delivering the building to specification for the money that was available. The CEO of The Olympus Academy Trust, which runs the Patchway school, believes that there are young people and their families who have been let down due to the delay despite the hope that a new construction company will restart building in the coming weeks, with a new school expected to have the best facilities in the area by 2027.
According to Rebecca Larkin from the Construction Products Association, contracting is slower than expected initially due to the very small margins that contractors usually work under. They may not have sufficient funds available if costs increase during the construction process. It was expected that up to 100 contracts would have been awarded for the programme, but as of current, only 62 contractors have been given contracts to date. However, the DfE argues that the projected 83 contracts due to be issued by March 2023 is on track and confirms that on average, school construction projects take 2 to 5 years to build, with work happening at nearly half of the projects
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