Verdict soon on PPPs for schools

Bill English and Anne Tolley get a hand from future pupils Ben Harrison, 3, (left) and Ashton Reed, 5, as they turn the first sod for a new Mt Wellington Primary School. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Finance Minister Bill English says decisions will be made mid-year on whether to use public-private partnerships to build new schools and a new prison.

He told a business lunch in Auckland yesterday that the Government wanted to get more efficient use of its $110 billion worth of assets, including $12 billion in educational institutions, "through greater exposure to private-sector techniques including better risk assessment, tighter commercial discipline, as well as a strong focus on better design and service".

"Public-private partnerships, or PPPs, are one option for doing this," he said.

"The Government is considering the merits of two such partnerships - one for the construction of schools and the other for the construction and management of a new prison. We expect to make decisions around the middle of the year."

The Government earmarked $523 million in last year's Budget for educational building over the next four years, including 11 new schools, five trades academies and early childhood centres on South Auckland school sites.

Mr English and Education Minister Anne Tolley turned the first sod yesterday at one of three new schools where construction has started, a new Mt Wellington Primary School in Auckland. The other two under way are Golden Sands Primary and Papamoa Secondary, both near Tauranga.

Mr English said it was too soon to say whether private investors might be brought in for individual schools or for wider projects covering several.

"We are just looking at the feasibility. We don't have to do any PPPs."

Ms Tolley said in December that any PPPs would cover only "a portion of the ministry's new school programme and an even smaller portion of the Government's overall spend on school property".

If the idea went ahead, she said, private investors would design, build and maintain the school property, relieving the board of trustees of this responsibility. But the board would remain responsible for teaching.

She said similar partnerships had been successful overseas and couldcut costs, improve maintenance and allow greater community use of facilities.

Corrections Minister Judith Collins said last year that a new prison at Wiri, expected to be close to the women's prison which opened in 2006 in Hautu Drive off Roscommon Rd, was also likely to be "a starter for a public-private partnership".

Mr English said the Corrections Department had advised initially that two new prisons would be needed to cope with the likely growth in prisoner numbers over the next few years, but it now believed one would be enough.