Scottish Futures Trust - School Building Programme
SCHOOL BUILDING PROGRAMME - NEXT PHASE
The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, Fiona Hyslop announced in Parliament on June 17, 2009, the next phase to improve Scotland's school buildings delivered in partnership with local authorities through the Scottish Futures Trust.
The Cabinet Secretary announced £800 million of Government funding to support local authorities in taking forward a £1.25 billion programme for the construction of approximately 55 new primary and secondary schools from 2010. The programme will be managed and supported by the SFT, with all local authorities expected to benefit from the programme. The Scottish Government will work together with COSLA and SFT to identify which authorities will benefit from the initial tranche of 14 secondary schools. Further details will be announced in September.
More information
Further information on the Scottish Futures Trust
Funding for work on School Estate
Local authorities are responsible for deciding on priorities for capital expenditure on the school estate. Under the Prudential Framework arrangements local authorities are free to make their own decisions about how much to borrow or spend on maintenance and the renewal of school buildings, although they are under a duty to determine how much they can afford, and then budget accordingly.
In terms of funding, the Concordat which the Scottish Government signed with COSLA on November 14, 2007 sets out the principles of, and the arrangements for, Scottish Government support for local authority expenditure. In terms of capital resources, local authorities have £2 billion over the last and current financial years to secure investment in school buildings and other local authority infrastructure for use by authorities according to their own priorities.
In addition, financial support has been pledged for school building projects with a capital value of over £2.3 billion under Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangements in 30 authorities. Some of these projects have been completed; others are under construction, and others are at the procurement stage.
For detailed information about PPP in Scotland, including schools projects, see the Infrastructure Investment Unit.