Carillion jv wins £500m Durham BSF award

Carillion – as a member of a joint venture team – has been selected as preferred bidder for the £500m Durham Building Schools for the Future contract

The jv is known as the Local Education Partnership (LEP). In addition to Carillion, the other two partners are Durham County Council and Building Schools for the Future Investments (BSFI).

The jv will deliver 40 schools in four distinct waves over the 10-year contract period. 
The project is part of the UK government's £45bn BSF programme.

The first Wave of nine schools, which comprises seven secondary schools, one Special Educational Needs (SEN) school and one primary school with a combined capital cost of approximately £110 million, will be completed by September 2012. 

Three schools in the first wave will be privately financed by a combination of borrowing and equity.

Barclays and Nationwide will each provide £25m of the £50m of debt finance required. The LEP shareholders will contribute £6.2 million of equity, of which Carillion will provide £5m.

Carillion will provide facilities management services for the three schools, worth approximately £25m over the 25-year concession period.

The three subsequent waves of the Durham BSF programme will deliver the remaining schools with an estimated capital cost of £390m. 

Carillion chief executive John McDonough said: "This brings the total value of the BSF projects that we have won or for which we are preferred bidder to over £1 billion.