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20 April 2026

Tag: PFI

Only two of DfE’s 11 major projects ‘likely’ to achieve aims on time and budget

Only two of the Department for Education’s 11 major projects are considered “likely” to achieve their aims and come in on time and on budget, according to government experts. The Infrastructure and Projects Authority has highlighted its concerns over a series of flagship education initiatives, including the National Tutoring Programme, T-levels, teacher training reforms and […]

PFI Endgame: DfE steps in to ensure school handovers go to plan

The Department for Education has launched a new unit to help transfer the first private finance initiative (PFI) schools back into public hands. It comes as an investigation by Schools Week can reveal one school faces a £1 million exit fee to change its maintenance firm after the deal ends. Flawed contracts and schools’ limited […]

Ormiston Academies Trust got £1.1m government loan

One of the country’s largest multi-academy trusts was lent more than £1 million by the government to help “cash flow management” last year, the second such settlement it has negotiated to takeover struggling schools. Ormiston Academies Trust, which runs 37 schools across England, received an extra £1.1 million from the Education Skills Funding Agency last […]

Rescue schools tied to ‘toxic’ PFI contracts, Hammond told

The government will no longer use private financial initiatives (PFI) to fund future school-building projects – but is facing criticism for failing to help those schools still tied into “toxic” contracts. Chancellor Philip Hammond announced on Monday the government won’t sign off any new PFI deals, claiming the model was “inflexible and overly complex”. It […]

WCAT school left without sponsor over £1 million-a-year PFI contract

A private finance initiative contract costing more than £1 million a year has stopped one of the last schools left from the collapsed Wakefield City Academies Trust from finding a new home. Mexborough Academy is one of the last two of WCAT’s 21 schools left without a new sponsor since the trust’s collapse in September. […]

United Learning boss rules out taking costly PFI schools ‘ever again’

One of the largest academy chains in England has refused to take on any new schools with costly PFI contracts because it has “barely any control” over the buildings. The 51-school United Learning has declined to adopt the struggling Sedgehill School in Lewisham, south-east London, which council documents show has a debt of over £1 […]

Public accounts committee chair slams ‘exorbitantly expensive’ PFI contracts

The chair of the parliamentary public accounts committee Meg Hillier has spoken out against costly private finance initiative contracts and warned that the scheme’s relaunch as PF2 is little more than a rebrand. “Many local bodies are now shackled to inflexible PFI contracts that are exorbitantly expensive to change,” she said, reflecting the situation faced […]

Academy facing ‘crippling’ £21 million PFI costs will now close

A struggling academy facing “crippling” PFI repayments of £21 million will now close, it has been confirmed. Schools Week reported last week how the government had agreed “in principle” to close The Kingsway Academy, in Wirral, following two-year discussions over its viability. Northern Schools Trust, which took on the academy in 2014, said low pupil […]