黑洞社区

Consultants and architects are racing to reorganise their 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future teams so they can bid for the government鈥檚 鈥渇ree schools鈥� initiative.

Several firms have formed free school units and met with parent groups, as well as journalist Toby Young. The government has pledged 拢50m for the schools up to next March, and about 20 projects are being planned.

One of the consultants is EC Harris, which has teamed up with a developer, architect and engineer and met with Rachel Wolf, head of New Schools Network, the government-funded body leading the programme.

Simon Lucas, head of education at EC Harris, said people were 鈥渂eating a path鈥� to Wolf鈥檚 door.

He has also had met with Young, who is planning a school in Acton, west London, and done 鈥減ro bono鈥� work for him.

Davis Langdon has also set up a team comprising a private equity group, a contractor, an architect and an educationalist, and is preparing to meet Wolf.

Paul Zuccherelli, education boss at Davis Langdon, said: 鈥淓veryone is trying to position themselves. We think this could become bigger, which is why we鈥檙e putting the investment in.鈥�

Wolf said: 鈥淲e鈥檝e been contacted by a range of architects and builders. We鈥檙e waiting for a decision by the department [of education] on how it will work.鈥�

Among the architects, Space Group is working on a project and Surface to Air has advertised in this week鈥檚 Times Educational Supplement for interested groups.

The news comes amid continued fallout from the decision to close BSF. A number of local councils, led by Nottingham, have said they may sue the government for costs incurred in the process. The Local Government Association said councils spent 拢160m working up cancelled BSF schemes, on top of the 拢100m spent by contractors.

The UK Contractors Group wrote to Michael Gove, the education secretary, this week warning of the costs likely to be incurred by reinstating teams that have been stood down.