Trowers & Hamlins

Trowers & Hamlins, the City and public sector law firm, has advised the London Borough of Barnet on a £200 million Primary Schools Capital Investment Programme (PSCIP).  Barnet is one of the first local authorities to take part in the PSCIP after being chosen with 22 other local authorities to take part in a pilot scheme ahead of the rest of England.

The PSCIP is a £7 billion project launched by the Department for Children, Schools and Families to rebuild and refurbish half of England’s 18,000 primary schools over the next 15 years.

The first wave of the project will see 10 of the borough’s primary schools rebuilt.  Contractor Kier has been awarded the £84 million, 4-year strategic partnership with Barnet and will begin rebuilding the first school, Whitings Hill in Barnet later this summer, followed by Broadfields Junior School, Edgware, in January 2009.

Trowers & Hamlins will continue to advise Barnet over the course of the strategic partnership as the rebuilt schools are delivered and new partnerships entered into.  The strategic partnership will deliver two new schools each year.

Comments Helen Randall, Partner, who led the Trowers & Hamlins team "We are delighted to have been chosen as legal advisers to one of the first local authorities to take part in the PSCIP."

"Trowers & Hamlins’ public sector team are already advising a number of local authorities on the Government’s Building Schools for the Future initiative.  We are pleased that our strength and experience in this area makes us ideally placed to advise Barnet on this pilot scheme, which will test the best planning and procurement methods before other local authorities undertake the programme next year."

Trowers & Hamlins is accredited by the Partnerships for Schools legal services panel and is advising a number of local authority clients including Southwark Council, the London borough of Hammersmith & Fulham, Tower Hamlets and Harrow, Essex County Council, Blackpool Council and Wolverhampton City Council on their Building Schools for the Future and Academies initiatives.