Thumbs-up for plans to improve BSF schemes

Contractors gave a thumbs-up this week to Partnerships for Schools (PfS) plans to cut the time and cost of bidding for Building Schools for the Future (BSF) schemes.

The plans, revealed by CJ last week, are the outcome of a major review of the £45bn BSF programme which looked at bid costs, ICT and local education partnerships. PfS estimates savings of £250m across the BSF programme.

Chris Whitehead, managing director of new business at Balfour Beatty Capital, called it "a high-quality proposal that will contain contractors' bid costs and authority procurement costs".

The Major Contractors Group (MCG) also responded positively. MCG director Stephen Ratcliffe said the plans "reflect contractors' concerns that there is a clear need to speed up the process and reduce bidding costs for these projects".

The British Council for School Environments said the plans were a step in the right direction, but did not go far enough. Director Ty Goddard said: "It is not the root and branch reform some would want, but it is a clear recognition that this process wastes time, is expensive and can be made better."