Education construction sector offsets gloom

The education construction sector was a ray of sunlight in an otherwise gloomy first quarter of 2026 for the construction industry.

Glenigan data points to rising activity in the sector, with project starts and main contracts awarded both increasing steadily over the first three months of this year.

Starts at an underlying level (below £100 million) rose by 31%, and there was a 12% increase in contract awards. Although planning approvals fell in this quarter, the outlook remains positive.

Glenigan economics director Allan Wilén commented: “Policy commitments to improving the condition of the existing school estate, alongside major programmes such as the Schools Rebuilding Programme, are expected to underpin activity levels and support workload growth across the education sector over the medium term.”

Schools Rebuilding Programme

The largest amount of education construction work to start in the first quarter of 2026 was on schools, with £955 million-worth of work starting construction as the Schools Rebuilding Programme boosted workload.

The programme will deliver more than 500 schemes over the next decade (Project ID: 20264300), and the fourth phase is progressing.

Nine schemes in England were recently awarded. Bowmer & Kirkland picked up the largest tranche with an, and a £62.9 million redevelopment of Smithdon High School at Hunstanton, East Anglia (Project ID: 21338370).

Morgan Sindall also picked up a pair of deals – the £17 million Hempland Primary School in York (Pictured – Project ID: 21339613) and the £14.2 million scheme at King Ethelbert School in Birchington-on-Sea – and has won the most education work in the last year.

Top 10 education contractors – April 2025 to March 2026

 Next phase

Glenigan figures show that continued growth is forecast, with more work in the pipeline.

This will be bolstered by the next phase of the Schools Rebuilding Programme, with the government setting aside £2.4 billion a year up to 2030. Nominations closed on April 23 for the next 250 schools to be rebuilt (Project ID: 26064953).

Regional pipeline

Although there was a 36% decline in the value of approvals at an underlying level in the first quarter of this year, six regions registered a rise.

The biggest increase came in the East Midlands, where approvals leapt by 206% compared to the first three months of 2025.

Many projects already have planning permission, and there are 162 schemes at an underlying level, expected to start construction in the next 12 months.

The biggest pipeline is in the South East, where 29 education schemes with approval are due to commence, ranging from an £8.3 million teaching block at Northfleet Technology College (Project ID: 24264553) to a £23 million student hub at the University of Portsmouth (Project ID: 24176061). Both should start in late spring or early summer.

The East of England has the next largest pipeline of education construction projects, with 26 approved schemes expected to start. This includes a £32.0 million plan to relocate Breakspeare special needs school to a site in Croxley Green in Rickmansworth, where work should begin this summer (Project ID: 19411064).

RAAC On

With the government also committed to spending on work to address faults in education facilities affected by problems from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC), the education construction sector has a range of stimulus measures set to benefit order books.