While Jarvis’ joint venture with UBS Warburg, Odyssey Property Services, has been unable to secure any private outsourcing work since its launch in April last year, Jarvis itself has won two more educational PFIs worth £526m.

To further add pressure on Odyssey, its chief executive Barry Lucas, who is also the managing director of Jarvis' PFI arm Jarvis Projects, will leave at the beginning of next month. He will be retained as a consultant for Jarvis, but will no longer be involved in PFI.

A Jarvis spokesperson claims that Lucas’ departure will not affect the venture and says that Tim Langdon, currently business development director of Jarvis Accommodation Services, will take up the role.

On its own, Jarvis has been more successful and its newly won PFIs include the £213m project to modernise nine schools for Wirral Borough Council and the £313m contract to transform 20 schools for Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire.

The company will design, build, finance and operate the schools for the Wirral Borough Council, accommodating for 9,200 pupils. The scheme will also involve a £72m investment to upgrade the infrastructure of the schools and the delivery of facilities management services over a 28 year period. Services will include building and grounds maintenance, caretaking, cleaning, catering, transport and security.

The Kirklees Metropolitan Council contract involves the same services for 13,000 pupils, with FM being provided for 30 years.

Kirklees will be the first local education authority to take an equity stake in a schools refurbishment project. Although there is a real but small risk attached to this, the upside is potentially good, as Ken Gillespie, head of public-private partnerships for Kirklees told i-FM: "It's a pretty one-sided deal. Our stake, which is in the hundreds of thousands range, is tiny compared with the overall project value. As education provider, we feel the risks of failure are small and we have the expectation of an ongoing share in profits. More importantly, by taking this stake we ensure that at least one person around the boardroom table represents the community."

Councillor John Smithson, Chair of the Council’s Lifelong Learning Management Board, commented: “This partnership programme will improve the conditions and the environment for 20% of the total school population. It will mean that teachers who have had to be involved in managing buildings will be able to focus on what they do best.”

www.jarvisplc.com

Jessica Jarlvi