Merseyside borough's PFI schools still cost public £30m a year

One school has been closed for seven years but the council is still paying millions for it

Merseyside borough's PFI schools still cost public £30m a year

Knowsley’s controversial centres for learning are still costing the taxpayer more than £30 million a year.

The seven schools, built under the last Labour government’s Building Schools for the Future programme as cutting-edge replacements for the borough’s secondary schools, were originally billed as costing the council around £24.5 million annually.

But when they opened in 2009 problems swiftly became apparent. Truancy rose, standards did not and the schools required major rebuilding work to replace their open plan design with more orthodox corridors and classrooms.

One school, Christ the King in Huyton, closed after just four years as parents refused to send their children there, while four others have been converted into academies meaning the council has no control over them.

But spending reports reveal that VAT and maintenance costs mean the public must still fork out a quarter more than the advertised price each year.

In 2019 alone, the council paid £31.6 million to Transform Schools (Knowsley), the company set up to build and maintain the schools under a private finance initiative (PFI) contract and now owned by investment fund Dalmore Capital.

The uplift means the £613 million PFI contract for the schools is due to cost closer to £750 million by the time it is paid off in 2032. Meanwhile, the actual value of the school buildings is just £180 million.

Not all of that money comes out of the council’s own finances.

Knowsley Council gets help in the form of a government PFI grant, worth £21 million last year, and the four academies also have to contribute to the tune of around £5.4 million.

This leaves the council having to make up the difference - around £5 million a year - out of its own resources.

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But the local authority insists that the controversial project is still worth the expense.

A Knowsley Council spokesperson said: “The Building Schools for the Future programme has enabled us to transform all of secondary education settings into modern learning environments, for the benefit of pupils and teachers alike.

“As well as modern buildings, they are equipped with the latest technology and also provided a valuable asset for the local community to use.

“Without the programme, we would have outdated and unsuitable buildings, needing major investment to keep them, repaired, maintained and open.”