England’s 20,000 primary and secondary schools could pour millions more pounds into their plant and equipment if they considered alternative approaches to maintaining their assets, according to FTSE 250 outsourcer and energy services company Mitie.

Using figures from schools they are managing, Mitie calculated that millions of pounds could be re-invested across the country if companies were able to manage school boilers, heating systems and other infrastructure.

In January 2012 the government announced that there would be an 80% cut* in devolved capital funding to schools, money which pays for capital projects and indirectly impacts the maintenance and upkeep of school assets.

The cut in funding means that school budgets are more stretched than ever before – making innovative models such as the one Mitie deploys a more attractive proposition for schools.

The Mitie model involves taking on the complete management of a schools energy assets upfront. Mitie starts by running the existing assets, such as boilers, more efficiently which involves optimising them so they cost less to operate.

Using the savings this generates – which can result in short-term energy savings of as much as 10% – Mitie then invests in new state of the art capital equipment which drives further cost savings.

New equipment is far more reliable and energy efficient than legacy infrastructure – reducing the likelihood of schools having to close down during the winter and increasing valuable teaching time.

Since 2004 Mitie has been maintaining the assets of twelve schools across North Somerset Council (NSC) and has calculated that it has re-invested almost £500,000 over a five year period into new capital equipment such as lighting sensors and energy efficient lighting, solar panels and building management systems. This works out at £8,333 per year per school.

The council has also benefited from having a reliable system, cost stability, budget predictability, simplified contracts and compliance with environmental and safety legislation.

Martin Holt, managing director of Mitie’s Technical Facilities Management business, said: “Our research indicates that thousands more schools could benefit from lower energy bills, better infrastructure, and protected capital budgets if they considered new approaches to managing their energy assets.

“The beauty of the approach we have taken with North Somerset Council is that it can be replicated in any school in the country and have a real impact on schools budget and frontline services without any additional upfront costs.

“At a time when the public and private sector alike are looking for cost efficiencies that don’t impinge on crucial services, this is the kind of innovative model we think more schools should be considering.”

Mark McSweeney, Property Services Manager for North Somerset Council said: “The reality is that given the budgetary pressure schools are under we could not hope to make the capital investment that Mitie has made, which is why this partnership has been so beneficial to us.

“Since bringing Mitie on board the heating systems of schools in our council have been far more reliable during the cold winter months. In fact we had no school closures during the cold winter of 2010/2011, which was a great achievement.

“The improvements have helped us keep schools open in all weathers and have made a real difference to the staff and pupils. Even better, the arrangement has enabled schools to focus resources on core teaching budgets.”

-ENDS-

* http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6067996

For further information, contact:

Bell Pottinger

Chris Watts
D: 020 7861 2859
E: cwatts@bell-pottinger.oc.uk

Notes for editors

Methodology To date

Mitie has invested almost £500,000 into twelve schools across North Somerset Council over a period of approximately five years from 2006 to 2011.

By dividing the £500,000 across the twelve schools, and dividing this figure over a period of approximately five years, each school is estimated to have re-invested £8333 per annum in its energy assets.

If this figure is extrapolated across the 20,000 schools in the UK then it is estimated millions could be saved across the UK’s schools.

Please note that this is a rough estimate – not all schools may be able to make the same average savings as indicated from our sample size from North Somerset Council.

What is Mitie?

We’re the strategic outsourcing and energy services company.

What does that mean in practice? We manage facilities, energy and properties for our clients across the UK and beyond.

We work with our clients in three ways; some take full advantage of our whole range of expertise, others may only need one aspect of what we do:

Strategy and consultancy
+ Facilities and energy management
+ Service delivery

Our strategic input can add value at the highest level by helping clients to manage their assets, while our practical management expertise can save customers money and reduce their carbon emissions. We work with a vast number of clients in every industry across both the public and private sectors and deliver the broadest range of services that can be found in one place: from integrated facilities management to engineering maintenance to lifecycle energy management and much more.

There’s a lot more to Mitie than you probably think. We’re a big company with big ambitions – a leading FTSE 250 support services business, with more than 63,000 people, revenues of £1.9bn, and a reputation for being the best.

Visit our image library at www.flickr.com/photos/mitie_group_plc