Scottish Building Federation welcomes £1bn schools programme

The Scottish Building Federation (SBF) has welcomed the Scottish government's £1.25bn school construction and refurbishment programme.

The programme was announced yesterday by Scottish Government Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop.

The programme will see construction of up to 55 promary and secondary schools in Scotland by 2018.

Ministers said the government would provide £800m of new money towards the overall cost of the scheme, with the remainder coming from local authorities.

Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop said: "This new investment will provide state-of-the-art schools for almost 35,000 young people and it will make the cost of replacing schools much more manageable for local authorities."

SBF chief executive Michael Levack said: “I welcome today’s announcement as an important step forward towards implementing a fresh round of investment in construction and refurbishment of schools in Scotland.

“For the building industry, the key question has to be when these projects will start. The Scottish Government has indicated that work on a first phase could begin in early 2010. With more than £1 billion of school and hospital projects due to reach completion by November of this year, there is literally no time to lose. I would urge the Scottish Government to do everything in its power to make sure that early 2010 is absolutely the latest that work on the first phase of this new school investment programme actually begins.”