Lambeth agree PFI deal |
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Lambeth Executive have given the go-ahead for the
PFI rebuild, with the treasury awarding the school 'significant pfi project
status' - easy to do as they do not have to spend any money, or if they do it's
very little compared to what the local community will pay for the next thirty
years. The DfES has allowed the projects credits to be increased from
£14.5m to £20.4 - the DfES remember doesn't allocate this money, it
just allows the project to borrow this money. (Very much like the way the IMF
sets credits for the Third World, but never lends any money).
The LEA will negotiate with its preferred bidder
Focus Education. As yet, we have no information on this company.
The scheduled opening date for the new school is
November 2004. We trust that the LEA will see that the quality of structure
will be above that of other PFI projects and that the building contracts,
including the deadlines, are adhered to. We'll keep you posted. |
Why we are
concerned
Lilian Baylis's rebuild
is the first project approved by Lambeth under the governments PFI scheme that
even the Tories was a daft way to finance public expenditure.
The results so far bear
witness to this with even the government themselves admitting that PFI is more
expensive and the quality of the buildings is sub-standard.
The notion that there is
a company with 'loadamoney' waiting to come in is a myth. A company or a
consortium bid for a contract, then they raise the capital. Because they are
volatile - and every time the costs seem to rise, as in this case from
£14.5m to £20.4 m , so far - the interest rates payable to the
banks are greater than they would be for a local authority.
.
Lambeth's Agreed Preferred
Bidder? |
In addition, the company
will need to re-claim the costs and make a profit over 25 years. Therefore they
are given, in effect, financial management of the site. Can the school afford
the repayments or will they have to cut costs? how will the LEA make the
payments, in this case to Focus Education? They will be paying out a lump sum
every year for 25 years. Will the school's revenue budget be affected by this?
If not, how will it affect all projected capital expenditure throughout the
borough?
If it is to be suggested
that we are being alarmist, we only have to look at what happened in Waltham
Forest at Lammas School. The Education and LEA Blocks are under considerable
financial pressure, with issues around Special educational needs, home to
school transport as well as the additional contribution to the Lammas School
PFI, not forgetting the procurement cost of the New Schools Project. When WFs
NUT Secretary raised questions, he discovered that the contractors of Lammas
school (WS Atkins) had to be paid an additional £250,000 from LEA funds
which is the gap between the Govt. credit and the cost of the contract. This
has to be made in the context of cuts in the council.
The cuts have therefore
hit other LEA services . The Chief Executive thought that the affordability gap
would be wider next year. There are 11 PFI schools in Waltham Forest so (in the
New Schools Project), a gap will develop 11 times bigger than the
Lammas
.
But even if all goes
well, it still reflects badly on the council in that when the community was
consulted and rejected the council's PFI proposals, they were
ignored. |
Here to help Bob the Builder? |
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New Building - background
Part of the plan was to relocate the school to a new
site. A new, modern purpose built building was part of the package. Or so it
seemed. Perhaps it is a problem for New Labour, but whenever there is a genuine
mass consultaion, it goes pear shaped. So, when the populace of Vauxhall were
consulted about the redevlopment of their area, including housing and school
with the project subjected to PFI funded they voted against by a margin
of 60% to 40%.
It is very clearly put by the campaigners that the
prime interest in the Vauxhall project was to sell off the site to property
developers just to make money. The indication that Lambeth does not have a
sound Secondary education policy is clear in their own paradox. There is a
shortage of Secondary places in Lambeth. Yet they would wish to reduce the
Lilian Baylis provision by three forms of entry, rather than spend money in
improving and re-developing as necessary the existing Lollard Street site.
If the authority spent time making schools more
attractive, genuinely working with the community rather than making large
numbers of teachers redundant and closing schools purely as part of a
property deal, than some measure would be made to improve the education of
Lambeth students.
Those in the council chamber are still intent on going
ahead with a new 4 form entry building on the Kennington Depot site, but there
are new legal and tendering problems.
And just to add to their woes, English Heritage
have realised the outstanding architectural features of the main buildings and
the historical uniqueness of Lilian Baylis school and are campaigning against
demolition. Remember, we were accused of not being forward looking. Perhaps we
would have planned the new site, buildings and staffing before we would have
driven in to the unknown without a steering wheel.
For more on the background to this visit Lambeth
Authority website (via links) |
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