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Davis Langdon named to major schools building surveying programme

April, 2012

Combined approach of Consultancy Group’s building surveying team and the schools sector team helps secure major building surveying appointment across the Midlands and North West

Davis Langdon, an AECOM company, has been named as one of three infrastructure, construction and built assets consultancies appointed to carry out Property Data Surveys (PDS) as part of the Government’s Property Data Survey Programme (PDSP) which is being delivered by Partnerships for Schools (PfS) on behalf of the Department for Education (DfE).  This commission will see Davis Langdon carry out condition surveys on a third of the schools in England - approximately 8,000 in total - across the North West, East Midlands and West Midlands.  

The PDSP is a programme designed to help the Government understand the relative condition of around 23,000 school buildings across England, and one of the key recommendations of the recent James Review into school capital. This will go some way in ensuring that future funding allocation decisions can be made on a needs and conditions basis.

Anthony Walker, Deputy Director, Technical and Property at Partnerships for Schools (PfS), the Government’s delivery agency for capital investment in schools which is leading on the delivery of the programme, said: "We are looking forward to working with Capita Symond, Davis Langdon and EC Harris to survey England’s entire education estate for the first time. The work of these firms will span across all local authorities and schools, eliminating the potential for regional variations in the data collected.

"We are delighted by the market response to both the procurements associated with delivering this programme. We are sure that Capita Symonds, Davis Langdon, EC Harris, the AMS software provider Tribal and their supply chains will effectively fulfil the brief on time and to budget.”

Rachel Sanders, Head of Davis Langdon’s Consultancy Group, commented: “This appointment is an exemplar case study on how we can bring forward better propositions to our clients by combining the knowledge and experience of our end market teams and Consultancy Group.”

“We believe that the quality of the school environment has a major impact on pupils and staff,” added Gordon Stirling, Head of Building Surveying at Davis Langdon. “So we see this is a critical exercise to ensure that the condition of school buildings across England provide the best possible learning environments for the future.”

Darren Talbot, Davis Langdon’s Schools Lead for Europe, said: “This appointment demonstrates how combining our programme management with an innovative IT solution, we are able to demonstrate to central government how we can cost effectively deliver a critical plank of their education policy.”

The Property Data Survey Programme has been established by the Department for Education (DfE) to obtain a clear picture on the high-level condition issues on schools across the country.  The data collected will be used to provide evidence of the current condition of schools that will be considered as part of future maintenance allocations.