Scottish Futures Trust - School Building Programme
Scotland's Schools for the Future - £1.25 billion school building programme
In June 2009, the Scottish Government announced £800 million of funding to support local authorities in taking forward a £1.25 billion programme for the rebuilding or refurbishment of approximately 55 new primary and secondary schools through to 2017/18. The programme is being co-ordinated, managed and facilitated by the Scottish Futures Trust, and all local authorities are benefitting from the programme. Funding for 35 school building projects was announced in June 2010, and a further two secondary school projects were announced in December 2010.
The programme is being funded via a mixture of capital grant and revenue support through an NPD investment pipeline. Further information about the programme can be found on the Scottish Futures Trust website.
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.
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. Information on Education Revenue Costs for PFI School Estate Schemes.
For further detailed information about PPP in Scotland, including schools projects, see the Infrastructure Investment pages.