House building refugees chase BSF work

Firms fleeing the house building slump are swelling the ranks of consortia bidding for a slice of the government’s £45bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

Partnerships for Schools chief Tim Byles said the number of BSF bidders, currently standing at 25, could swell to 30, with a number of new entrants from house building.

He told CJ: “BSF is good news in the current climate and we are receiving a lot of new expressions of interest – a lot of them very much involved in house building.”

He insisted these new entrants were committed to BSF and not just using it as a safe haven during the housing slump.

He said: “This is more about people seeing BSF in the context of a broader regeneration policy involving not just schools, but also housing, health and leisure schemes.”

But Byles said he did not want to see “an ever-increasing  number of  bidders” and predicted an eventual consolidation of BSF consortia. He said: “Firms investing in BSF have a right to expect a return on their investment and a steady flow of work. It would not be a good idea to have too many.”

Byles acknowledged that a number of firms, such as Balfour Beatty and Carillion, are starting to emerge as front-runners for BSF schemes.

He said he was not concerned that this might create a momentum of its own, resulting in a small number of firms dominating the market.

He added: “It is down to performance. One general message for bidders wanting to succeed is that they must listen and be responsive to clients’ needs and never present a ‘one size fits all’ solution.”