黑洞社区

The body in charge of delivering the government鈥檚 Priority School 黑洞社区 Programme (PSBP) is to fire the starting gun imminently for for the 拢1.75bn privately financed element of the programme.

An announcement from the Education Funding Agency (EFA) that will reveal details of the funding method currently being prepared is thought likely to coincide with the official tender for the first batch of schools, in Hertfordshire, Luton and Reading.

Sources said the announcements could be published as early as today, but, if not, it is expected next week. The first batch has a notional construction value of 拢112m, according to the EFA.

The news follows comments by EFA head of capital Mike Green at the 黑洞社区 Future Education (BFE) conference in London this week that the EFA will launch the PF2 element of the programme 鈥渨ithin days鈥�. Government sources said the batch in Hertfordshire, Luton and Reading would be followed by three other batches 鈥渧ery soon afterwards鈥�.

These will be in the North-east, worth 拢101m; the North-west, worth 拢94m; and Bradford and Kirklees, the value of which has not been disclosed.

Rachel Stephenson, the EFA鈥檚 programme director for PSBP, said that the EFA would start working with a further three groups of schools before the end of the year.

It is thought likely the EFA will at the same time formally begin a search to procure a single financial 鈥渁ggregator鈥� to raise private capital for the schools planned under the programme. These schools are to be the first public projects to use the PF2 model launched in December as a replacement to the PFI system. Instead of each batch of schemes raising its own private capital, as under PFI, the 鈥渁ggregator鈥� will raise debt finance for the whole 拢1.75bn programme.

Daniel Rudley, deputy director of private finance at the EFA, said at the BFE conference that the aggregator would reduce potential funders鈥� risks against individual projects by allowing them to invest in a portfolio.

He said: 鈥淭his is about how the programme accesses the private finance needed. The aggregator removes the need for quite so much scrutiny of individual projects by institutional investors.鈥�

鈥淭he aggregator will sit above the individual projects and assume a certain level of health of the individual projects, and be able to be institutionally rated for investors itself.鈥�

Rudley confirmed PF2 schemes will still require bidders to provide equity finance, but the aggregator will replace all of the debt funding traditionally required for a PFI scheme.

In addition Rudley said winning PF2 bidders would be expected to be held accountable for the 鈥渂aseline鈥� energy use in buildings they construct, despite Treasury鈥檚 desire that schools themselves should have no recourse to the builders if energy bills are high.

It is also understood the winning contractor for the London batch of the 拢380m directly-funded element of the PSBP is also set to be decided today. The remaining directly-funded four batches, in the North-east, North-west and the Midlands, are to be decided before the end of the month.