£5bn Academies deal boost for contractors

Work-starved contractors will be offered the chance to join a new £5bn National Academies framework deal as the number of firms on the list is nearly doubled.

CJ understands that Partnerships for Schools (PfS) will advertise the new framework next year, in time to replace the current four-year National Academies framework which expires in 2010.

PfS is also considering ways to cut bid costs on the new framework. One option is to replace mini competitions requiring expensive design work with simple interviews which would allow smaller contractors to compete for the new deal.

The current list is populated with large firms. The six members are Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Kier, Laing O'Rourke, Skanska, and Willmott Dixon.

There is also a move to include larger Building Schools for the Future (BSF) schemes worth up to £200m under the current framework.

The £200m Telford and Wrekin BSF scheme has been given the green light to use the framework in response to BSF consortia's lack of appetite for schemes of this size.

The Government's £9bn Primary Capital Programme is also expected to boost the academy framework's workload with a number of councils planning to include primary schools in their academy schemes.

Schools secretary Ed Balls has also revealed that another 70 schools could become academies under the Government's National Schools Challenge. The initiative seeks to force failing schools to raise academic standards or face being replaced with academies.

Contract awards under the current academies programme continue apace after Kier saw off Balfour Beatty for the £40m Norwich Open Academy scheme to replace Heartsease secondary school.

The news follows Carillion's selection as preferred bidder for Kent County Council's New Line Learning Academy and Kent Batched Academies programme, worth £118m.

Willmott Dixon is set to win the £73m Oxford Academy scheme and Balfour Beatty is also sole bidder on the £88m Hull Academy project.