Pre-budget: schools spending boost well-received by contractors

The government's announcement in Monday's Pre-budget Report that it was accelerating up to £800m of investment in schools modernisation projects by 12 months has been generally well-received by the construction industry.

Funding originally earmarked for the Primary Capital Programme and three other work programmes in 2010-11 will now be available in 2009-10, meaning over £7bn will go into schools next year.

Rob McGregor, managing director of Apollo Group, said: "This is great news and we are glad to see the government is willing to grasp the nettle and do something positive to help the industry.

"To have impact, the investment must be channelled into deliverable projects. Faster procurement methods will be needed if the money is to have any real effect."

Keith Chanter, chief executive officer of Emcor UK, said: "Bringing forward £3bn of public spending is certainly a welcome move, and for the public sector elements of our business, such as... Building Schools for the Future, this is a good thing.

"However, these types of contracts can't simply be switched on at a moment's notice, so we'll be keen to see how these undertakings can be effected."

However, Jim Costello, director of consulting engineer Hulley and Kirkwood, said: "Rushing the next generation of BSF projects through may be good for construction in the short-term, but it risks ignoring the shortcomings of the last decade of public private partnerships in education.

"Design excellence, especially in areas like sustainability, has lost to the issue of short-term costs on many PPP projects."