The ESP consortia comprising Bank of Scotland, Semperian and John Laing (John Laing also manage the project) undertook the £458 million project to design, build, finance and operate, 19 separate educational and/or community facilities, in two phases resulting from a 32 year contract signed in November 2001.
The construction costs were £112 million and provided two new build secondary schools, three part new build and part refurbishment secondary schools, and the new build of ten primary schools, two special needs schools, a secure unit and a community centre. Each one was completed on programme and indeed those in the second phase were finished ahead of schedule, allowing more than 10,000 Edinburgh school pupils benefit from the project daily
Sections of the school sites, which were surplus to requirements, were sold for housing development to raise funds for Edinburgh City Council's contribution to capital costs.
John Laing is a 20% shareholder in the Public Private Partnership and provides all the staff for the SPV. The project was constructed in two stages; the contractor for the first stage was a joint-venture between Amey and Miller Construction and, for the second stage, Miller Construction. Amey provide both hard and soft facilities management services.
