The government’s £45bn 15-year Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme still represents a lucrative opportunity for the channel, according to channel players, despite recent reports that it is running massively behind schedule.

According to the Conservative Party, of the 300 new schools that were scheduled to open under BSF by the end of next year, less than 70 will be finished.

However, a Department for Education and Skills representative told CRN: “Addressing decades of underinvestment will not happen overnight. We have focused on the key challenges to deliver this unprecedented building project.”

Partnerships for Schools (PfS), the body overseeing the BSF programme, admitted to CRN that the original timetable has proved to be unrealistic.

Antonia Russell, communications manager at PfS, told CRN: “Nothing of this magnitude has ever been done, so when the original timetable for BSF was drawn up two years ago it was based on old Public Finance Initiative education projects. Based on what we know now we want to realign the timetable to a more realistic timeframe. We are not abandoning the scheme as some reports suggested.”

Ten per cent of the value of all BSF projects is ring-fenced for IT. Ramesys, Research Machines, Northgate, Centerprise and Redston e have all been successful in BSF schemes.

Steve Smith, business development director for education at VAR Ramesys, said: “The procurement of BSF is complex. It is the first time that IT has been procured along with design and build, so it is understandable that it is taking longer than anticipated to complete some of the schemes.”

Mike Efstathiou, BSF technical design consultant at Centerprise, said: “We spent 18 months working on the Leicester BSF tender, so we were delighted to be named preferred bidder last year. It is worth about £25m to Centerprise.”

Becta resellers set to bod for BSF contracts