Uniform strategy

Earlier this summer, work began reviving Luton’s schools. Over the next four years, 13 of the town’s secondary schools will be rebuilt or refurbished along with 20 primaries.

But the mission to transform Luton does not stop with education. New leisure and health facilities are planned - along with up to 600 homes for social renting or shared ownership.

Much of the school work is funded through the government’s flagship Building Schools for the Future programme. Having set up a local education partnership with private developer QED Wates, Luton Council received £280 million and has already raised a further £28 million for
the project via the private finance initiative.

According to Robin Porter, BSF programme director at the council, housing plays a critical role in these plans by improving prospects for students and their families. ‘If you stop at the school gates, you’re not transforming their life chances,’ he says.

Building Schools for the Future launched four years ago in an attempt to upgrade classrooms in England that, in some cases, were more than 100 years old. To date, 30 English local authorities have received more than £4 billion to rebuild or refurbish 191 schools and a further £6 billion is on offer before March 2011 (see box overleaf: model pupils). But while BSF money is intended to pay for schools rather than housing and other facilities, the government is keen that councils and their partners look at the bigger picture. And, as in Luton, the opportunities for making sure housing gets in on the action are growing.

Bigger picture
Amy Leonard is director of communications at Partnerships for Schools, the quango that runs BSF on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families. ‘We’re starting to see authorities thinking more broadly about BSF as a centrepiece for wider regeneration and viewing their schools as community hubs,’ she says.

QED Wates is the majority shareholder in Luton’s LEP. The developer is building the new homes as well as rebuilding and refurbishing schools. It is due to name the housing association that will manage the completed social rented and shared ownership properties later this month.

Kevin Hewitt, seconded from QED Wates to run the LEP, counts housing as an ‘added-value initiative’ of the partnership. ‘It makes sense to achieve educational outcomes by looking at the housing side and wider regeneration,’ he argues.

That’s not the end of the good news for housing providers. BSF was recently expanded to cover primary schools as well as secondaries.

artnership for Schools also administers a £200 million ‘co-location fund’ for non-educational initiatives which include health and wider community projects. But social landlords and other developers keen to get involved with BSF-related regeneration still need to use traditional sources, such as the Homes and Community Agency, for funding.

‘The HCA is trying to align investment with other investment in the public sector,’ says Paul Spooner, regional HCA director in the west midlands. He adds that the agency wants to ensure that housing programmes are in tune with new schools and other services - partly so families moving into new homes have vital facilities nearby.

It is already demonstrating how to achieve that harmony. The HCA has joined a local regeneration partnership in north Solihull that includes the council, Whitefriars Housing Group and private developer Bellway.

As well as helping to fund 8,500 new homes and refurbish 18,500 existing properties, the agency is contributing nearly £10 million towards a new primary school from its property and regeneration fund.

It’s a long haul. The recession and a fall in council land sale receipts mean work in Solihull has slowed. The project is now likely to take 20 years instead of 15.

Partnership manager Duncan Sutherland says the programme remains ‘education driven’ and that the new schools and a further education college will train construction workers for other projects. ‘If you put schools in place, you attract people to buy houses. Everything is connected,’ he says.

Mutually beneficial
The benefits of a dual approach could extend well beyond the long-established links between good schools and affluent communities. The Chartered Institute of Housing is studying how housing and schools complement one another and, among other things, reduce anti-social behaviour on estates. The study includes two academies - in Ashton-under-Lyne, Manchester, and Sunderland (see box, below) - that have been partly-funded by social landlords.

Joanne Kent-Smith, policy and practice manager at the CIH, says it is vital to combine the strengths of the education and housing sectors, especially as social housing is often in areas that are in most need of new schools.

Social landlords familiar with the workings of local and central government can also provide ideal partners for schools and education authorities trying get to grips with new initiatives. ‘They know how to navigate bureaucratic funding streams,’ she adds.

Like the record numbers of people applying for student places this year, housing providers looking for a safe haven during recession could do worse than head back to school.