Kier has been selected for a £77 million design-and-build redevelopment of RAAC-affected Stepney All Saints Church of England Secondary School in east London, an appointment that matters to building and architecture professionals because it shows the Department for Education's post-RAAC procurement machinery now routing high-value work through fewer, larger contractors via framework call-offs rather than open tender. The £77 million contract value excludes VAT, rising to £92.4 million including VAT; both figures remain subject to confirmation once detailed design and final works agreement are complete.

Kier is a UK-wide construction and infrastructure services group ranked among the country's largest contractors, delivering commercial, education, health and infrastructure projects across England, Scotland and Wales.

The Department for Education made the appointment through lot two of its Construction Framework 2025, an estimated £15.4 billion programme spanning two value bands and ten lots, appointed without further competition.

Kier is initially working under a preconstruction services agreement covering early supplier involvement and design development, ahead of a potential main works award under a JCT Design and Build contract running from August 2026 to July 2031.

The structural driver is the ongoing RAAC remediation programme, which is forcing the Department for Education to rebuild or refurbish 119 identified schools while running a wider School Rebuilding Programme backed by £1.4 billion and a pledge of 50 rebuilds a year.

For the sector, the timing matters because Kier secured this appointment the same day Tilbury Douglas won the £31 million Cavendish School project in Eastbourne, together worth £108 million, showing the DfE distributing large RAAC-driven contracts across a small pool of tier-one contractors rather than one firm.

The appointment adds to a pattern already visible in Kier's own pipeline, including its recent £98 million pairing of the Wellfield Academy GenZero project in Lancashire and the RAAC-hit Anglo European School in Essex, positioning the contractor as one of the DfE's most active delivery partners on education infrastructure.

The broader implication for the sector is that framework call-off procurement, rather than open competitive tender, is becoming the default route for major school rebuilds, favouring contractors already positioned on frameworks like Construction Framework 2025 over newer entrants.

Source: Construction News / Contract Journal / School Building