N Ireland unveils £3.6bn schools investment

Northern Ireland is looking for eight framework contractors to kickstart its £3.6bn schools modernisation programme.

The £650m design and build framework will run for up to four years until an Education and Skills Authority is set up. This body will then engage four regional strategic partners to deliver the remaining £3bn of work.

Richard Henshaw, a partner at EC Harris, which is helping Northern Ireland's Education Department procure the framework, told CJ: "This is an interim arrangement. The intention of the framework is to kickstart the activity, which will run until the Education and Skills Authority is established. There will be a maximum of eight contractors. We expect them to be a mix of local and mainland companies with perhaps larger mainland companies procuring the services of local contractors."

Henshaw said he expects a good response from the industry at its market information day. "The procurement director has been inundated with requests for documents," he said. He added that the framework will give contractors invaluable experience of the wider Northern Ireland schools modernisation programme.

However, a CJ straw poll of mainland schools contractors revealed little appetite for the Northern Ireland schools market. One construction director said: "There is so much work in England, Wales and Scotland that there is no reason to consider going to Northern Ireland, which has never been an easy market anyway."