黑洞社区

The government has committed a further 拢2bn to its flagship school building programme, although the funding will not be made available until 2015.

Schools minister David Laws said last week the government would commit 拢2bn in capital funding over the next spending review period, from 2015-2021, to extend the Priority School 黑洞社区 Programme (PSBP).

Laws said the next phase of the PSBP would draw on data collected through the Department for Education鈥檚 (DfE) school condition survey, which is being undertaken by consultants Davis Langdon, EC Harris and Capita, but has been hit by delays and cost overruns.

Laws said the survey, initially meant to be completed last October, would now be completed by 鈥渢his summer鈥�. He said the new funding would be focused both on rebuilding whole school estates, as well as individual buildings within estates.

The 拢2bn PSBP programme was launched to replace the 拢55bn 黑洞社区 Schools for the Future programme in July 2011.

Around 拢1.75bn of the original programme was set to be funded through the government鈥檚 new private finance model, called PF2, but this was slashed to just 拢700m after struggles to source private sector finance, with the remainder made up through capital funding.

The extra 拢2bn announced last week is entirely capital funding, with no private finance element.

DfE said details of how schools would be selected for the next phase of the PSBP would be published 鈥渟hortly鈥�. It said that of the 261 schools in the current programme, 28 were now either under construction or open, with design work under way at 234.

The first school to be completed under the PSBP, Whitmore Park Primary School in Coventry, opened last week. The school was built by Wates as part of a 拢38m batch of schools in the East Midlands.

The DfE says all of the school projects in the current programme will be completed by the end of 2017.