Dickinson Dees to advise on schools construction programme in North and Midlands

Leading Yorkshire law firm Dickinson Dees has been appointed to advise the Education Funding Agency (EFA) on a new school-building programme in the North and Midlands. 

Dickinson Dees will be providing full legal services for the construction of schools which will be built over the next two years from theMidlandsto the Scottish Border as part of the Government’s Priority School Building Programme. 

The Education Funding Agency (EFA) is an executive agency of the Department for Education and the successor body to Partnerships for Schools. 

Kevin Robertson, a partner in the public services team at Dickinson Dees, who have an office in Leeds, commented: “The Priority School Building Programme is a new schools building programme which has the purpose of rebuilding and renewing 261 schools across England over a five-year period. 

“The programme contains a mixture of private finance and capital projects and we have been selected to work on capital projects for those schools in the North and Midlands. 

“Schools involved will be a mix of primary, secondary and special schools and cross a range of local authorities. Specialist legal advice is required in relation to a number of areas, including construction (both contentious and non-contentious), planning, procurement, education law, charity law and tax,” said Mr Robertson. 

He explained: “This is a very significant appointment for us and we are delighted to have been appointed as the sole adviser to the EFA for the new-built programme for schools in the North andMidlands.

“It is a ringing endorsement of the skills we possess in this highly competitive sector and we look forward to working with the EFA to provide them with first-class legal advice. This appointment builds on our successful relationship with the EFA on the Free Schools programme. 

“With offices in the North East, Leeds andLondon, we are able to draw upon the expertise of more than 70 highly-experienced lawyers who specialise in a range of construction and education matters across this wide geographical area,” he added.

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