Member Article

Miller secure £156 million North East schools contract

Construction group Miller has been selected to deliver a £156 million batch of new school projects, developed under PF2 private finance model and set to be finished by August 2016.

Miller were selected by the Education Funding Agency (EFA) as part of the Priority School Building Programme.

The firm will deliver six secondary and six primary schools across the North East, and will provide maintenance and lifecycle services over a 25-year period - valued at a further £55 million.

The construction programme will provide new, purpose-built facilities which will benefit more than 8,350 pupils across the region, as well as providing 188 nursery places.

The secondary schools included in this batch are: Bedlingtonshire Community High School, Northumberland; The Duchess’s Community High School, Northumberland; Laurence Jackson School, Redcar and Cleveland; Longbenton Community College, North Tyneside; Hetton School, Sunderland and Seaham School of Technology, County Durham.

The primary schools included in this batch are: Front Street Primary School, Gateshead; Hylton Castle Primary School, Sunderland; Lingey House Primary School, Gateshead; Mandale Mill Primary School, Stockton on Tees; Roman Road Primary School, Gateshead and Shiney Row Primary School, Sunderland.

The next stage for EFA, Miller Construction and the schools is to engage in a six month detailed design stage through to financial close.

Financial close is targeted for the end of 2014 with construction starting on-sites soon after.

Chris Webster, chief executive, Miller Construction, said: “We are delighted to have been appointed as selected bidder for this batch of schools across the North East. In line with our strategy of providing integrated solutions across the full property lifecycle, we will fund, design, build and care for these schools.

“This latest appointment builds on our track record of delivering and maintaining high quality and best value learning environments that support improved educational achievement. We now look forward to working closely with the schools to finalise the designs so we can start to deliver these class-leading facilities that will benefit staff, pupils and communities for many years to come.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .