Council seeks funding for Hollingworth school project

Reporter: Jan Harwood
Date online: 24 February 2009

Rochdale Council are hoping to secure funding for a PFI new build at Hollingworth Business and Enterprise College but Partnership for Schools, the government body responsible for the £55billion nationwide building programme, is suffering a lack of cash because private finance has dried up.

The Council hopes that the new build at Hollingworth will start in November and are monitoring the funding situation. John Bollington, Building Schools for the Future Project Director at the Council said: "Given that there are nine months before financial close it is not possible to predict the future. We know that Partnerships for Schools, who are responsible for the delivery of BSF across the country, are monitoring the current situation and are exploring how any challenges that exist might be overcome.”

The new build at Hollingworth would be funded through a Private Finance Initiative, a partnership between the public sector and private sector companies to provide a public service.

The Government has looked at the possibility of borrowing cash from council staff pension schemes but Rochdale Council has not been approached to release funds and would not be able to dip into pension money itself because Rochdale employees' pensions are held in a Greater Manchester fund, rather than a Rochdale specific one.

The National Association of Pension Funds has argued that pension funds could be pooled across local authorities for school programmes.

News emerged last week that the programme to rebuild or refurbish 3,500 of Britain's secondary schools is facing serious financial difficulty, with nearly £10billion of PFI projects being held up.