Hon Bill English
Minister for Infrastructure
Hon Anne Tolley
Minister of Education
Hon Rodney Hide
Associate Minister of Education
6 April 2011

The Government intends to commission two new schools in Hobsonville that will be designed, financed, built and maintained under a public-private partnership, Infrastructure Minister Bill English, Education Minister Anne Tolley and Associate Education Minister Rodney Hide announced today.

The Government will now seek formal expressions of interest from market participants for new primary and secondary schools at Hobsonville Point, north-west of Auckland. Subject to satisfactory bids, the schools will be the first built in New Zealand under a PPP.

“This Government has made it clear we are open to greater use of private sector expertise where it makes sense. Building and maintaining two new schools through a PPP is likely to result in a range of benefits," Mr English says.

“While the financial savings in this case are expected to be relatively small, overseas experience shows appropriate use of PPPs introduces new design, financing and maintenance techniques, which flow through to the wider public sector – helping it to improve its procurement and management of infrastructure.

"That is vital when the Government holds $223 billion in assets, which will grow by $33 billion over the next four years. We need to ensure taxpayers get high-quality services at the best price from this large and growing asset base," Mr English says.

Mrs Tolley says the PPP will benefit students and teachers.

"The private sector partner will be responsible for financing, designing, building and maintaining the property for 25 years of school operations," Mrs Tolley says.

"This means the schools and boards can focus more on teaching and learning, without the added responsibility of managing the property.

"The land and school will still be owned by the Government, while the board of trustees will remain wholly in charge of the governance and day to day running of the school.

"In addition, the private-sector partner will carry the risk around time-consuming and expensive problems like leaky buildings and be required to sort them out quickly or suffer a financial penalty,” Mrs Tolley says.

Mr Hide, who has delegated responsibility for education PPPs, says the Government chose the Hobsonville schools because together they were large enough to be viable as a PPP.

“Today’s announcement comes after in-depth investigations of the suitability of PPPs for new school property by the Ministry of Education and the Treasury," Mr Hide says.

"A single establishment board of trustees has been appointed to oversee and assist in the process of setting up the new schools. The board has been briefed on PPPs and will work closely with the Ministry of Education throughout the process."

The new primary school is scheduled to open at the start of 2013, with the secondary school due to open at the start of 2014.

ENDS

© Scoop Media