But according to John Rouse, chief executive of CABE, the result of this bonanza is a plague of “industrial sheds without windows”. And that includes Malmesbury and its neighbouring PFI schools in north Wiltshire.”Some of the new buildings we’re getting are as good as anything you’re likely to see,” says Rouse “But it is patchy. We have others that you would not want to send your children to. We’re trying to build them too quickly and too cheaply.” While there is nothing intrinsically wrong with PFI, he believes that endemic corner-cutting means the Government’s favourite initiative has become a significant obstacle to good design, and the result is “schools as McDonald’s”; bland, identikit, and with no feeling for a local context.It is all the more frustrating that some contemporary new schools’ architecture is excellent – the award-winning, bow-fronted Hampden Gurney primary school in central London, for example, and the low-rise, timber-framed buildings pioneered by Hampshire County Council. But while the architectural establishment enthuses over the clean lines, natural light and imaginative use of space at a privileged handful of beautiful schools, pupils elsewhere are condemned to work in cramped spaces under the glare of artificial light from morning to night because there are too few windows – often in an attempt to save money on the heating bill.At some schools the ventilation is poor, says CABE, while inadequate, two-foot gaps between the building blocks suck in weeds and litter. At others, the corridor space has been cut down to a minimum, increasing the risk of indiscipline and bullying. Yesterday, the commission staged a major conference on school design, attended by Baroness Ashton, a minister with the Department for Education and Skills.

It urged her to stamp out such poor building practices, many of which, says John Rouse, contravene the government’s own guidelines.Councils have little choice about using the Private Finance Initiative. Although pioneered by the Conservatives, it is now central to the huge capital investment that ministers are making in the school infrastructure. Of all the planned projects, only 50 have been paid for through the traditional route of public sector borrowing – because if you want a new school or sports hall, the rules are fixed to ensure that PFI is the only game in town.Malmesbury is one of three schools built in a single £125m project drawn up by Wiltshire education authority. And this is small potatoes, compared with the £1.2bn for 12 new schools, the refurbishment of 29 schools in Glasgow and the £300m for 15 schools in Liverpool. The private sector is also being brought in to provide goods and services.

In Dudley, for example, a £49m deal with RM has put 6,000 computers and hi-tech cabling into its schools.There are two arguments in favour of PFI: it’s a way of raising additional public investment, which taxpayers are believed to be unwilling to provide, and it assumes that private sector management is superior to that in the public sector. The traditional style of procurement was, on average, 60 per cent over budget and 60 per cent overdue. The hope is that firms such as Jarvis, WS Atkins or Amey will do a better job. They put the money up front, and in return the local authority pays an annual fee until, after 25 or 30 years, it is allowed to reclaim the building as its own. The rationale is that by getting the private sector to invest, you transfer part of the risk The chief downside is the cost.