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An artist’s impression of how the interior of Highbury Grove could look after renovation work |
How green is winner of £140m schools contract?
Lib Dems clash over eco-credentials of firms renovating buildings
SENIOR Lib Dem councillors have clashed over the environmental credentials of the private building consortium being paid millions to renovate Islington’s schools.
The Transform Schools consortium has won the borough’s £140 million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) contract, with work due to start in January 2008.
Balfour Beatty, the building giant leading the consortium, will pay at least £4 million of its own money into the project but refuses to clarify how it will benefit from the “equity investment”.
Andy Jennings, the council’s deputy chief executive, is adamant that Balfour Beatty will receive no stake in the school, such as land rights, but only maintenance contracts. The 25-year maintenance deals can be sold on at any point.
The government has pledged more than £95 million in Private Finance Initiative (PFI) credits and grants for the rebuilding programme.
But Terry Wrigley, an education lecturer at Edinburgh University, has warned that PFI loans tied up in Islington’s BSF programme mean that for decades the borough will be paying crippling interest rates.
The first phase of construction, which will take at least five years to complete, begins in January next year at Highbury Grove, in Holloway, and St Aloysius Roman Catholic College in Archway.
All eight secondary schools not earmarked to become city academies will benefit from the programme.
The council will also pay millions of its own money into the scheme, some of it raised from its controversial property portfolio sale.
After the public was excluded from Thursday night’s Town Hall executive meeting, when the final decision on BSF was taken, sources say Lib Dem education chief Councillor Ursula Woolley clashed with finance chief Councillor Andrew Cornwell, a party colleague, over adding extra eco-conditions to the Transform Schools contract.
The row was over the “renewable energy targets” promised by the consortium and its rival bidder, Investment in Communities (IIC).
Such environmental targets are a cause close to Lib Dem hearts and would mean more solar panels, wind turbines and energy-saving materials being used in schools to save money and reduce environmental impact.
Confidential minutes from the executive, seen by the Tribune, state: “Transform Schools have provide (sic) good levels of assessment, however their commitments are less clear cut than IIC’s in several areas particularly with regard to renewable energy proposals.”
It adds that Transform Schools “have not exceeded the target to the same extent as IIC”.
Cllr Cornwell, a keen environmentalist, was concerned that Transform Schools was not as committed as IIC to meeting the renewable energy targets.
But he was told by Cllr Woolley that Transform Schools had already been chosen and could not, under EU tendering rules, have its contract changed to increase its renewables targets.
Neither councillor returned our requests for a comment.
Transform Schools is a consortium made up of Balfour Beatty Capital, the Building Design Partnership, Haden Building Management and technical firm RM.
As well as building the schools, the companies will maintain and manage the sites.
Although the shortlist was kept secret, it was revealed this week that the other bidder was IIC, a subsidiary of Land Securities Trillium.
Trillium is, in turn, a satellite of Land Securities, one of Europe’s biggest commercial property companies.
Cllr Woolley said: “This is a huge step forward for education in Islington. We need to get it right, which is why our standards for choosing a BSF partner were so high.
“Investing in our secondary schools and the future of all our young people is a top priority for the council.”
Councillor Richard Watts, Opposition Labour spokesman for children, also welcomed the rebuilding programme.
He said: “I am proud that almost all of the money for this important project is being provided direct by the Labour government.”
Helen Wills, chief executive of Transform Schools, said: “This project is a great opportunity, both for the school children of Islington and for the wider community, and we will be extending our local labour initiative created in connection with Homes for Islington for this project, thereby providing a further 28 apprenticeships.” |
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