Jarvis and Ants are Up in college

Jarvis has arranged prospective funding of up to £500 million to take over the management of university student accommodation.

The firm has set up a deal with Abbey National Treasury Services (Ants) and Barclays Bank under the name University Partnerships (Up) to provide the backing funding for the proposal.

Jarvis chief executive Paris Moayedi believes student accommodation is not core business for the universities, and that the ownership and management should be transferred to the private sector.

The idea is that a series of special-purpose companies, which will be jointly owned by Jarvis, Ants and Barclays Bank, will acquire, manage and develop student residential accommodation for the individual universities.

Moayedi said that Up would, where necessary, refurbish and add to the acquired buildings and provide long-term facilities management services.

He said the scheme would allow the universities to obtain the use of the accommodation without the need for the buildings or the associated debt to be on their balance sheets.