West set for a £200 million construction boost

Some 100 small businesses are in the running for the work – which will include community centres, doctors’ surgeries and schools – along with larger companies such as Barr Construction, Mansell and Miller Facilities Management.

The contracts will be awarded using the “hub” model, through which 14 public sector bodies – including local councils, health boards and further education colleges – have come together to share facilities and use their joint buying power to bring down costs.

Across Scotland, some £1 billion of construction work will be awarded by hubs, with about £100m of construction projects already underway in the east-central, north and south-east hubs.

In the west of Scotland, about £20m-worth of work will get under way over the next six months.

The public sector bodies will work with WellSpring Partnership – a group owned by Apollo Capital Projects, Barclays and construction firm Morgan Sindall – to award the work.

John Hope, accommodation director at the Scottish Futures Trust, the body that designed the hub model, said: “This new way of working is improving value for money for the public purse as well as providing significant social, community and environmental benefits. This includes the creation of local employment and training in a difficult economic environment, much of which is being delivered by small and medium-sized enterprises.”

News of the contracts comes just a week after official figures showed a sharp drop in construction sector output during the first three months of the year, dragging Britain’s economy back into recession.

Michael Levack, chief executive of the Scottish Building Federation, warned 40,000 jobs had been lost from the sector in the past five years.

Levack added: “Unless further urgent action is taken to boost capital investment, we will see further painful contractions in the sector’s output – and further job losses.”