‘Green shoots of recovery’ for the education property sector
An overview of the Education Summit, held last week in London
‘Green shoots of recovery’ can be seen across the education property sector, according to speakers at this year’s Education Summit.
The event, held last week in London, brought together experts from across public and private education, from investors and developers, to architects, contactors, and product and service suppliers.
As well as an exhibition, there were four conference streams – EducationInvestor, Independent School Management, Nursery Management Today (NMT) Owners Club, and Education Property – where speakers provided delegates with information on the challenges and opportunities facing the sector.
In a keynote speech by Ashwin Assomull of L.E.K Consulting, the sector was said to be coming out of an ‘annus horribilis’, with ‘green shoots of recovery, and then some’.
Assomull said: “Big groups are continuing to invest, but regional chains are getting beefier and building more schools.
“M&A has been very busy and even through COVID big groups were acquiring.”
He said the international student market was particularly vibrant, making up a large part of the UK’s university enrolments.
And he said there were opportunities for investors and operators in both the UK and overseas.
Delegates heard about the importance of good design on learning and wellbeing
Challenges and opportunities
The Education Property stream, chaired by Education Property editor, Jo Makosinski, covered a number of the key challenges facing investors, developers, operators, and estates teams, including carbon reduction efforts, maintenance pressures, and the importance of good design.
Speaking about design best practice, Alex Raher, director of Delve Architects, gave examples of some of the practice’s recent redevelopment projects, highlighting the growing trend of retrofitting existing estates rather than demolishing and building new facilities.
“People think retrofit is costly, but with space at a premium we should be looking a lot more at existing structures,” he said.
Education ‘superpower’
Dr Jo Ladds, associate education consultant at Noble+Eaton, added: “Education is a superpower and we need to raise the bar in terms of design.
“We now know a lot more about how learning happens and need to maximise the potential – looking at what is possible, rather than the barriers.
“Every aspect of the environment is our curriculum, buildings included, so we need to invest in them
“The UK is falling behind in the rankings and struggling to recruit teachers and refurbishment is starting to happen to counter this decline.
“50% of senior leaders have carried out significant refurbishment and 44% believe current spaces are limiting learning.”
The session also saw commentary from Chris Kennedy and Tom Woods of Kennedy Woods Architects and Peter Courtney of LSI Architects.
Courtney said: “Let’s get the basics right first, then design from the inside out.
“We owe it to all building users to get environments right first time.”
Many educational buildings are being retrofitted rather than demolished and reconstructed
SMART buildings
Talk then turned to the need to create SMART buildings which harness digital technology to improve efficiency and promote learning.
Paul Wilson of Provelio and James Clay of Jisc gave an overview of the role technology can play in education estates moving forward.
Clay said: “Universities are complex, like 30 different businesses all sharing a common carpark.
“We are helping them to think about, not just creating SMART buildings, but intelligent campuses.
“It’s about using technology to help us see how much energy we are using and breaking down the data we have about our facilities.
“There is a real mix of buildings in the sector – some university buildings, for example, are older than the Aztec empire – and while we may not be able to do everything, it is not impossible.”
Wilson added: “Gathering data and using it effectively is vital to be able to make decisions.
“We find most organisations are data rich, but management poor.
“We need an integrated picture.”
Struggling estates
The massive pressures facing the estate were also highlighted, as speakers addressed issues such as RAAC, backlog maintenance, and poor energy efficiency.
Emma Willson of the National Audit Office (NAO) said its research had revealed that 24,000 buildings are beyond there established initial design life, and there was an £11bn backlog maintenance bill facing the sector.
“Overall, the condition of the estate has been in decline following underinvestment and we are seeing safety risks, with 700,000 children learning in schools that need to be refurbished.
“The long-term challenge is that sustainability also needs to be thought about and there are real variations in skills and capital in local authorities and schools, as well as a lack of senior engagement.”
Rav Cheema of LocatED added: “The education estate is vast at eight million sq m – double the size of the NHS
“It constitutes a third of public sector estates emissions and the cost of running the estate in increasing, with £1.6bn being spent a year on energy alone.
“We need to look at how we deliver a national programme, but one made up of thousands of small projects, day after day.
“Funding is an issue, but also we need a change of mindset and we need to use data to understand the estate.”
How to prepare for PFI contract expiry was covered in the Education Property stream
Life after PFI
Ioan Davies of DAC Beachcroft; and Matt Reid and Jack Banks of P2G Contract Support, provided delegates with information on preparing for life after PFI.
As many educational operators come close to the end of their PFI contracts, work will need to be carried out to ensure the estate is fit for handover.
Davies said: “IPA guidance is to begin looking at contracts seven years before the expiry of the contracts, but when you start depends on how well they are operating.
“If there are issues, these need to be identified and many people do not understand the resources needed for this, with a third of public bodies saying they do not have the resources to handle PFI expiry.”
Banks explored what may come next in terms of utilising private capital to support improvements to the education estate.
“There is a lot of discussion going on about life beyond PFI and it’s about demonstrating the use case for private investment. Has it resulted in better-quality buildings upon end of contract?”
The day ended with an exploration of the carbon net zero challenge and the role of biophilia in education delivery and design.
Speakers included Alex Green of Let’s Go Zero; Andrew Dutton from Arcadis; Ben Lowe of TG Escapes; Suzie Longstaff of London Park Schools; and Professor Derek Clements-Croome of the University of Reading.
Commenting on the event, Ian Koxvold from Supporting Education Group said: “The content was fantastic and the attendees were excellent.
“It was the perfect opportunity to catch up with representatives of most of the commercial education sector in one day.”
Jashan Bahad of Portakabin added: “The line-up of speakers was great, bringing fresh perspectives and inspiring ideas.”
And Holly Bryant of Gerrard Eve said “The event brought together brilliant minds from across space.”
To find out more about next year’s event, click here .