01 / Introduction

From the Building Schools for the Future programme back in the 2000s to the current school rebuilding and free schools programmes, the Department for Education (DfE) has long been the principal funder of schools projects across England. 

The past two decades have been busy ones for the sector. In 2004, the government announced an ambitious programme to transform schools in deprived areas via the Building Schools for the Future programme (BSF). The six-year scheme delivered more than 100 new and refurbished schools. Most of the major new building works were PFI-funded, which allowed consortiums of financiers, construction companies and IT companies to develop and finance public assets on behalf of local authorities.  

Since the BSF programme, there have been several ongoing condition-based programmes, aimed at improving and replacing tired existing stock. The Priority School Building Programme (PSBP) was a school rebuilding, block replacement and refurbishment programme that was implemented by the then-coalition government as a replacement for the BSF programme. There have been two phases of PSBP; the first covered 2010-17 and the second 2016-21.

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