Jarvis has won a 25 year PFI school contract worth £96m, to build and maintain a Jews' Free School (JFS) in Kenton, NW London. The total development cost will be around £42m, including design and construction worth £35m.

Facilities management and life-cycle maintenance costs will be £38m out of the whole-life value of £96m. As part of the contract the company will provide building maintenance, Kosher catering, cleaning, security, ground maintenance, reprographics services, IT and communications support.

Over the next two years Jarvis will invest £22m, backed by Barclays UK Infrastructure Fund and Barclays Bank. The rest of the development costs are to be met by land sales and contributions from the JFS Governing Body, the London Borough of Brent and the Department for Education and Employment.

Henry Lafferty, chief executive of Jarvis Accommodation Services, the division that will be managing the contract, explained the Jarvis approach: "We are delighted to be working with JFS to provide them with their new school. Our success in PFI projects of this kind is based on the integrated services that we offer. By managing the financing, design, construction and facilities management of a school, whole-life costs can be minimised, to the benefit of all parties."

School minister Jacqui Smith said: "This is the second voluntary aided Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract to be signed, and it is a very important pathfinder project. It is further proof that partnerships between the public and private sectors can deliver good value for money and high quality accommodation in the schools sector - helping to raise the standard of our children's education.”

Jessica Jarlvi

www.jarvisplc.com