黑洞社区

The government is set to impose more stringent contractual conditions on its PFI schools contractors, with those that deliver schools that do not meet required environmental performance standards paid less, 黑洞社区 has learnt.

The move comes as an in-depth Department for Education-commissioned post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of schools built under the previous government, revealed that all but one of the 25 schools evaluated failed to meet the required PFI benchmark in practice. This sets a standard at which contractors are paid, but is currently only measured at design stage.

黑洞社区 understands the government is now planning to ensure that under its Priority Schools 黑洞社区 Programme (PSBP), expected to come to market in September after a six-month delay, the government will implement post-occupancy checks on energy use, with contractors paid for actual performance in use of the schools. Currently, no such checks are undertaken.

鈥淚f environmental performance of the new building doesn鈥檛 meet the required standard, they will be paid less,鈥� an insider said.

Simon Lucas, EC Harris head of education, said the move was a 鈥済ood step forward鈥� but would need to be implemented 鈥渨ith care鈥�. 鈥淭here are many factors that contribute to poor energy performance in use and contractors must not be punished if the problem is that windows are being left open,鈥� he said.

Schools failing on sustainability

Of the 25 schools evaluated in the POE report, obtained by 黑洞社区, 36% were judged to be 鈥榰nsatisfactory鈥� in terms of their sustainability, 40% rated as a 鈥榩ass鈥� and 24% were rated 鈥榲ery good鈥�, with an analysis of the schools energy consumption revealing that most were performing poorly against benchmarks, especially in terms of heating (for full details see file attached, right).

鈥淓xcluding one well performing school, none of the evaluated schools reached the equivalent of the PFI benchmark. Heating caused the biggest concern as the discrepancy between actual energy use and the benchmark was the greatest鈥�.

It said heating was 鈥渂y far the largest part of energy demand鈥�, in comparison to electricity, which it said was 鈥渨orrying鈥�. 鈥淚t is the reverse trend of what has been seen recently in schools with low energy consumption where the heating component plays a much smaller part of the total energy consumption due to better performance of the building fabric and seasonal control of the heating system,鈥� it said.

The report said poor energy performance was particularly the case for secondary schools, where all but one was consuming between 200% and 400% more than the DfE鈥檚 energy benchmarks - with an average across the schools of 280% more.

It said the variation in energy cost between the school using the least energy and the school using the most energy was as high as 拢85,000 per year, the cost of a member of the senior teaching staff.

The report also found that, although all of the schools had Display Energy Certificates (DECs) - a way of showing the energy efficiency of a building - 37% of the DECs were not current, but were for the school prior to being rebuilt or refurbished.

It added that the majority of the schools had a D rating, against a PFI payment mechanism benchmark of B.

The report also found that, although the schools were registered for BREEAM certification for their design and construction, just three had completed their post-construction BREEAM certification, despite the majority of the schools being open for more than a year.

It said all of the schools evaluated were built to meet the minimum standards of the 2006 Part L requirements of the 黑洞社区 Regulations, but 鈥渋t was questionable that the minimum standards were being achieved鈥�.

The report said: 鈥満诙瓷缜鴖 should perform better and much more sustainably than they do currently 鈥� [the] building performance is often poor compared to the original design intent.鈥�

鈥楴ot surprising, but disappointing鈥�

The report said the high energy use was 鈥渙ften due to over-designed systems requiring precision management, a skill the schools did not have鈥�.

It said: 鈥淭he construction industry has often been guilty of designing school buildings that are too complex for their users, leaving a gap between the expectations of the designers and constructors and the ability of the users to run the buildings and their systems鈥�.

鈥淓nergy consumption and environmental operation in school buildings are not at all well understood by many building managers and users, and many schools are neither aware of their level of energy and consumption, nor whether this is higher than might be expected鈥�.

But it said a 鈥渓ittle effort鈥� expended on review of energy consumption in a school 鈥渃an reveal how users and managers can be helped to reduce energy consumption and improve internal conditions鈥�.

Architect Robin Nicholson, chairman of the previous government鈥檚 Zero Carbon Schools Task Force, said he was 鈥渘ot surprised鈥� by the findings on the sustainability of the schools, but said it was 鈥渄isappointing鈥�.

鈥淲e need to learn why it was - the really shocking bit is that the heating is so high - heating should not really be an issue in a school today. It鈥檚 over heating that is the issue.鈥�

Nicholson said the complexity of the building systems was a large part of the problem. 鈥淭he building controls are designed by engineers for engineers but are used by people - or in other word they鈥檙e not used because nobody can understand what they are. So heating is left on when nobody is there. If you don鈥檛 get the controls working properly its money and carbon down the drain.鈥�

He said simple and low cost measures, such as ensuring schools adhered to the DEC regulations and installing smart meters in schools could make a real difference.

But he said education secretary Michael Gove鈥檚 move to cancel the implementation of the recommendations of the Zero Carbon Taskforce, such as the installation of smart energy meters in 8,200 schools around the country - which the government cancelled after 3,000 had been installed - had 鈥渦ndermined the green mission鈥�.

鈥淚t鈥檚 something that has a relatively minor cost but the impact is huge,鈥� he said.

Nicholson added: 鈥淲e know that they鈥檝e been some really good schools built -and we know there鈥檝e been some really excellent low energy schools built - but in order to benefit from those we need to study them and have the [POE] results published. And we need to study the ones that don鈥檛 work and understand why they don鈥檛 work.鈥�

For more on the sustainability failings see

For an overview of the design review findings of the post-occupancy report

Tomorrow 黑洞社区 will publish the full recommendations of the report - and the report itself.