English schools to be retrofitted through government funding

Industry analysts suggest that over a third (35%) of school buildings in England aren’t fit for purpose. However, with schools across England set to benefit from investment of over £1.4billion in buildings and facilities over the coming financial year, is this about to change? School Building Magazine Editor Joe Bradbury discusses:

 

School leaders have long been crying out for improvements and repairs to be made on their current buildings. Extra classrooms are required to meet bustling demand. 43% of school leaders in the south west and 41% in the south east saying their buildings are not fit for purpose at all.

A shocking report into the state of school buildings (entitled ‘Better Spaces for Learning’), industry experts RIBA highlighted the urgent need for school refurbishment throughout the country.

  • 1 in 5 teachers have considered quitting because of the wretched condition of the school buildings they have to teach in
  • The Government’s Education Funding Agency’s new school building programme is too rigid and is leading to waste and poor value for tax payers
  • Over 90% of teachers believe well-built and designed schools improve educational outcomes and pupil behaviour
  • Over-engineered schools, with Government-specified equipment that only costly consultants know how to operate, is costing £150 million per year which could have been avoided if schools were designed better.

These findings are taken directly from the report on the state of school buildings in the UK, published by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Using the largest ever analysis of primary and secondary school buildings in the UK, a nation-wide poll of teachers, and extensive engagement with school buildings experts, RIBA’s Better Spaces for Learning report makes the case for an urgent review of the Government’s Education Funding Agency’s current school building programme.

Needless to say, the announcement that £1.4 billion will be invested to maintain and improve school buildings around the country comes as welcome news to the school building sector. And this includes over £430 million from the Condition Improvement Fund, covering more than 1,400 projects.

The money also includes almost £800million for local authorities and larger multi-academy trusts to invest in improving and maintaining their schools.

The funding is part of over £7.4 billion capital funding allocated since 2015. In addition, the priority school building programme is rebuilding or refurbishing facilities at over 500 schools across England.

This investment comes after stats last week showed the government is on track to deliver 1 million new school places by 2020 – with 921,000 created since 2010.

Education Secretary Damian Hinds said “Schools are much more than just buildings; they are the centres of communities, they are where children learn skills for the rest of their lives, and they are safe havens. That’s why it’s vital they are in the best possible condition. So as well as providing the resources for all schools to maintain and renew their facilities, this funding will target those schools with some of the most urgent need – making sure children don’t have to spend time in buildings that aren’t fit for purpose.”

For the financial year 2019–20, the £1.4 billion of funding includes approximately:

  • Almost £800 million for local authorities, voluntary aided partnerships, larger multi-academy trusts and academy sponsors, to invest in maintaining and improving the condition of their schools;
  • £433 million for the Condition Improvement Fund, which will cover 1,413 projects at 1,210 small and stand-alone academy trusts and sixth-form colleges;
  • Over £200 million of Devolved Formula Capital allocated for schools to spend on small capital projects to meet their own priorities.

Since 2015, the Condition Improvement Fund has allocated nearly £2bn for over 6,000 projects at more than 3,000 schools all over the country.

This year’s funding will go to projects that tackle building condition and health and safety compliance, such as replacing roofs, windows and fire alarm systems, to ensure that schools are kept safe and open.

On top of this the Department is announcing that over £8 million in interest-free loan funding will be split between 167 academies to pay for energy efficiency projects including heating controls lighting upgrades and insulation.

Retrofitting sustainability into our schools

A good school design can reduce running and maintenance costs, in some cases by more than several times a teacher’s average salary a year. If it was commonplace, perhaps it could prevent the English school estate from spending upwards of £150m annually on unnecessary operation and maintenance costs.

Just 5% of the nearly 60,000 school buildings across the UK are performing as intended and operating efficiently. The prevalence of damp, leaky classrooms and asbestos-ridden buildings in British schools means too many pupils and teachers are struggling to learn and teach in conditions damaging to their health and education.

Earlier this year the Department launched a new web-based tool to help schools switch to cheaper energy suppliers.

Figures from 2016/17 show state-funded schools in England spent more than £584 million on gas and electricity and the average secondary school spends around £90,000 a year on energy. If implemented properly, the funding could help the schools that receive it save around £1.8million a year, driving down the carbon footprint of the school estate and saving money in the process.

The money comes from the Salix Energy Efficiency Fund which is provided by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and administered by Salix Finance Ltd.

In summary

This country is in the grip of the worst shortage of school places in living memory. This report highlights the vital importance of school design and how it affects the general health and wellbeing of their users, our children and their teachers. As limited funding is available to deal with the growing problem, every penny spent on schools must deliver maximum value for money. 

How can we expect our children to compete with the world’s best when too many of our school buildings are substandard? Educational improvements resulting from the current programme of school building are not reaching the basic standards that British taxpayers and our economy expects. We need to do better for all of our children and their hardworking teachers. 

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How new housing can help create new school places

New guidance sets out how councils can seek funding from housing development in their area and use it to create school places. School Building Editor Joe Bradbury investigates:

 

According to recent government announcements, the guidance will support local authorities to negotiate what funding and land is required from housing developers for new schools and school expansions.

Developers already contribute to the cost of new infrastructure, including schools, but council requirements vary around the country. Today’s guidance will support local authorities to secure vital funding where development puts pressure on school places.

The guidance sets out that where developments mean new schools are necessary local authorities can seek both funding for construction and for suitable land to be set aside.

Alternatively, developers may build schools themselves rather than contributing money to councils. New schools should be built at the right time, so that places are available for the children who need them, when they need them.

Schools Minister Lord Agnew, said “It isn’t enough for developers simply to build houses; we need to build communities. Schools are at the centre of any community and that’s why it’s vital that developers contribute to the cost of the school places they create.

“This Government is already undertaking a huge expansion in school places, with one million new places on track to be created this decade. But schools can still find themselves under pressure from new housing developments, and where they do it’s right that where appropriate developers support these costs.

“The guidance ensures that local authorities can establish their needs for school places so that the right contributions from developers are secured as part of the planning process. In some instances, public funding may be used but only to the minimum extent necessary.”

New Schools Network Director Luke Tryl added We welcome the clarity this guidance provides local authorities on how developers can help contribute to the provision of new schools. We hope it will minimise the amount of time schools planned as part of housing developments spend in the pre-opening phase, while land acquisition and access are negotiated.

Educational Building and Development Officers Group (EBDOG) Chair Graham Olway concluded “We are delighted to have worked with DfE on this guidance, which will be instrumental in explaining to planners and developers what sites and contributions we need for schools, and how they should be provided. Negotiating developer contributions is often a very complicated, drawn out process, but having government guidance on the subject should make the negotiations more straightforward.

“This guidance on establishing the contributions required for schools is published following updated Planning Practice Guidance, which ensures that funding for schools is properly considered when housing developments are planned.”

In summary

This guidance couldn’t have come at a more apt time. Council leaders are warning that parents across England alone could face a chronic shortage of secondary school places over the next 5 years, a problem that stands to affect over 100,000 children.

The Local Government Association recently pleaded with government to avert disaster by 2023 following government released figures which indicate that over a quarter of maintained secondary schools in England were in deficit last year.

The LGA stated that its members were unable to supply more places because the majority of secondary schools are now academies and outside their control, whilsy government restrictions make it very hard for councils to build new schools where needed.

We are currently in the grips of a housing crisis, with three million new social homes needing be built in England over the next 20 years if we are to ever free ourselves from it. The government plan to build 250,000 homes by 2022, including homes for social rent.

This guidance, if implemented properly, stands to kill two birds with one stone. Will it work? Watch this space.

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Offsite: a healthier way of delivering homes

England is short of four million homes. There are at least 320,000 homeless people throughout Britain and over a million on housing waiting lists. Needless to say, the housebuilding industry needs to change. The only way this can happen is if we look in on ourselves and our own behaviour and acknowledge our shortcomings; something that is hard to do. MMC Editor Joe Bradbury investigates.

The bad news is that the UK construction industry is currently responsible for 45% of total UK carbon emissions, 32% of all landfill waste and is responsible for more water pollution incidents than any other industry. The good news is that we have the knowledge, skills and technology to facilitate real change in the world, when we put our minds to it. Implementing offsite construction into the housebuilding sector could be the catalyst.

Waste not, want not

One of the key factors that will either seal our reputation as innovators or sully it indefinitely is the materials we use and how we choose to use them. With an unprecedented shortage of housing in this country, it is clear to see that despite what construction industry doomsayers print, the UK has a voracious appetite for housing that isn’t going away any time soon.

The construction industry is the largest consumer of natural resources in the UK today; a stark point that highlights just how high up on the agenda reconsideration of our building practices should be. The impact of our materials usage on the environment in of itself is staggering; a recent report by Willmott Dixon Group suggested that the construction industry alone is accountable for around 45-50% of global energy usage, nearly 50% of worldwide water usage, and around 60% of the total usage of raw materials.

The benefits of adopting more considerate ways to use materials are far-reaching. Take FSC-approved timber as just one of many examples; manufacturers who use forest products that are FSC approved can do so with confidence, safe in the knowledge that they are helping to ensure our forests are alive and well for generations to come. But the benefits are also far more immediate and closer to home than that; wood is a natural, renewable material, used often in modular building. It offsets our carbon footprint and offers significant thermal efficiency, keeping energy bills low. For the four million people in Britain living in fuel poverty today, building more energy efficient homes using modern methods of construction is urgent. Interestingly, if housing targets were met through timber-frame construction alone, new build homes in the UK would serve as carbon ‘banks’, capturing and storing nearly 4 million tonnes of CO2 every year.

Better for the environment

According to ‘The Waste and Resources Action Programme’, offsite construction can generate up to 90% less waste than traditional onsite building methods. This is largely because a factory is a much more controlled environment than a traditional building site – with far fewer variables

Modular construction offers a greater degree of reusability; buildings can often be disassembled and moved to another site entirely if necessary. They can be shifted and repurposed when required. However, should a modular building find itself no longer fit for requirement as it stands, many of its components can be salvaged and re-used in another project, reducing the need for fresh new materials in each new build. This reduction in materials usage protects depleting stock of resources whilst simultaneously lowering waste.

Offsite construction is far less energy intensive than traditional housebuilding methods. The carbon footprint left by the many construction vehicles and machinery on the site of a traditional construction project alone is considerably larger than that of modular construction. Put simply, fewer vehicles involved and less time spent on site results in less greenhouse gases being released into our environment.

And due to being built away from the construction site, modern methods of construction such as offsite and modular are a great way to reduce and control noise levels, causing less disruption to the environment and the people around it.

To summarise

The positive effects of modular construction on the housebuilding industry cannot be overstated, and with the UK Environment Agency and other government bodies putting increasing pressure on construction companies to reduce pollution and conform to environmental regulations, it is clear to see that change is imminent – embrace the future, build homes offsite.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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