The UK Education Funding Agency has announced that the Amber Infrastructure & International Public Partnerships Limited (INPP) consortium has been chosen as the selected bidder to fund five batches of schools being delivered through the Priority Schools Building Programme (PSBP).

The consortium beat out competition from five other bidders:

• Allianz and Uberior (Abacus),
• Barclays Infrastructure Fund, 3i and BlackRock,
• InfraRed and RBC,
• NIBC, and
• Rock Infrastructure and RBS (Lyceum).

The Priority School Building Programme is a centrally managed government programme set up to address the needs of the schools most in need of urgent repair. Through the programme, 261 schools will be rebuilt or have their condition needs met by the Education Funding Agency (EFA).

The first school will be completed in 2014 with all schools within the programme delivered by the end of 2017. As part of the programme, 46 schools in five batches with a value of circa £700 million are being delivered via private finance funding using the PF2 structure - the government's new approach to private finance. These will be financed by the Amber Consortium.

INPP expects to provide approximately 10% of this funding as each batch reaches financial close over the next 12 months.

PSBP is divided in five batches. All of them will be developed on a design, build, finance and maintain (DBFM) basis. The contract will include an estimated 24 month construction phase and a 25 year operational term from the service commencement date of the final school to be completed. The batches are the following:

• Batch 1: This batch has been awarded to the joint venture Interserve and Kajima. This batch involves seven new build secondary schools in Hertfordshire, Luton and Reading

• Batch 2: This batch has been awarded to Miller Construction. The PSBP north east private finance batch comprises of 12 schools including 2 first schools - Hetton School in Sunderland and Mandale Mill Primary School in Stockton on Tees.

• Batch 3: Morgan Sindall, Laing O'Rourke and Vinci Construction have been shortlisted. The PSBP North West private finance batch comprises 12 schools including 2 first schools, The Deanery Church of England High School and Sixth Form Centre in Wigan and Plymouth Grove Primary school in Manchester.

• Batch 4: Laing O'Rourke, Bam Construction and Morgan Sindall have been shortlisted. The PSBP Yorkshire private finance batch comprises 7 secondary schools: All Saints Catholic College, Huddersfield; Belle Vue Boys' School, Bradford; Carlton Bolling College, Bradford; Harrogate High School, Harrogate; Oakbank School, Keighley;  Samuel Lister Academy, Bradford; Whitcliffe Mount Business and Enterprise College, Huddersfield.

• Batch 5: Morgan Sindall, Laing O'Rourke and Vinci Construction have been shortlisted. The schools involved in this batch are located in Midlands region. They are the following: Alfreton Grange Arts College; ARK Kings Academy; Greenwood Academy; The Phoenix Collegiate; Plantsbrook School; President Kennedy School; Queen Elizabeth School; and Top Valley Academy.