CIOB Questions Capacity For BSF Initiative

A Chartered Institute of Building [CIOB] product story

Edited by the Buildingtalk editorial team Sep 3, 2004

Is there enough industry capacity to take on the Government's 'Building Schools for the Future' (BSF) initiative for upgrading and refurbishing 180 secondary schools across England?

The Government's 'Building Schools for the Future' (BSF) initiative for upgrading and refurbishing 180 secondary schools across England is set to commence in 2005-06.

But is there enough industry capacity to take on the generated workload of the scheme? Fourteen local education authorities will share a £2.2 billion capital investment boost in the first wave of the programme, that aims to see every secondary pupil within 10 to 15 years from 2005/6 (subject to future public spending decisions) educated within 21st century standard facilities.

The current industry climate suggests that the workforce is getting smaller with less retention of existing staff, fewer recruits and a workforce that is ageing.

Recruitment takes time as does training and education to produce the standard of workmanship that is necessary for these projects to take place.

Michael Brown CIOB Deputy Chief Executive said, "The BSF initiative is a fantastic opportunity for creating high standard educational facilities.

However there are serious concerns about the capacity of the industry to meet the workload generated by this initiative and smaller builders will either have to find a way of becoming involved or lose out on a considerable amount of future public sector work.