The European Investment Bank (EIB) has agreed to provide a £67 million (€92 million; $100 million) long-term loan to help build new secondary schools in Hertfordshire, Berkshire and Bedfordshire, UK.
These include Kings Langley School, Westfield Academy in Watford, Bishop’s Hatfield Girls School, Goffs School in Cheshunt, Longdean School in Hemel Hempstead, Reading Girls School and Stopsley High School in Luton. The financing provided by the EIB will cover for 40 percent of the programme’s total cost.
The project involves the demolition of unused buildings, upgrading existing facilities and construction of new schools. Building work is expected to start in the coming weeks.
The schools represent the second batch of the UK’s Priority School Building Programme (PSBP), which is to provide for the construction of a total of 46 new state primary and secondary schools across England.
The total capital expenditure on the schools in this batch is £144 million, of which London listed fund International Public Partnerships (INPP) will fund around £10.2 million.
The news comes just a few weeks after the EIB agreed to lend £46.3 million to build 12 new schools in the northeast of England, as part of the first privately-funded batch of the PSBP with £112 million being invested.
As part of the broader scheme, the EIB is to lend about £274 million to the overall programme under a 25-year agreement.
The PSBP aims to build a total of 260 new schools, with senior debt raised from the EIB and senior bonds subscribed for UK insurer Aviva. Both institutions are expected to provide about 50 percent of the senior debt each. INPP will provide mezzanine debt.
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