黑洞社区

The long-awaited 拢2bn second phase of the Priority School 黑洞社区 Programme (PSBP) will come to market after Christmas, the Education Funding Agency鈥檚 capital director Mike Green has said.

The 277-school programme 鈥� originally conceived to run between 2015 and 2021 鈥� has been pushed back a number of times. 黑洞社区 revealed in the summer that it wasn鈥檛 expected until October or November, but this date has also slipped.

, at which Green (pictured) will be speaking, he said the EFA 鈥渆xpects sometime after Christmas to be starting procurement [鈥�] Watch this space.鈥�

Asked whether there would be a third phase of PSBP, Green said 鈥渢here would have to be something鈥� due to growing demand for school places and deterioration in the existing estate. But he said his preference would be to move to 鈥渞olling programmes鈥� of work rather than stop-start phases.

Green said one of the main challenges facing the EFA was 鈥渁vailability of land鈥� 鈥� particularly in cities including London 鈥� and the client was launching a property company, called Located, charged with finding appropriate sites.

He also said the EFA was keen to use more modular construction, arguing early adopters in this area had already 鈥渏ust about cracked it鈥�. He added: 鈥淲e鈥檝e got concrete floors, we鈥檝e got schools that don鈥檛 look like modular buildings鈥� It鈥檚 an area where I think we鈥檙e coming on really quickly.鈥�