Occupancy cost plan for primary schools

Citation

(2000), "Occupancy cost plan for primary schools", Property Management, Vol. 18 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm.2000.11318dab.012

Occupancy cost plan for primary schools

Occupancy cost plan for primary schools

Keywords: Occupancy costs, Schools

It can take only 12 years for the occupancy costs of a primary school to exceed the initial capital cost, according to the BMI Special Report 283 – Occupancy Costs of School Buildings, available as part of the BMI Bulletin Service, or individually, priced £30.00.

While a typical primary school costs around £650/m² to build, the BMI report shows that an average primary school can cost £60/m² per annum to operate. This cost includes all maintenance, utility bills, cleaning, administrative costs and overheads, but excludes the operating costs such as staffing.

Alan Cowan, BMI technical consultant, commenting on the report, said

this study highlights the importance of whole life costing at the design stage of a project and the necessity to provide detailed occupancy cost plans and advice to those who will eventually be responsible for running the buildings.

The report analyses two recently constructed primary schools and projects the maintenance and occupancy costs over a 20-year period. Both schools have been designed for 420 pupils but differences in layout and construction have led to variations in the projected total occupancy costs.

All standard occupancy cost elements are included and the cost projections are based on a set of priced occupancy instructions.

Table II shows the average cost for each element over the 20-year period and compares the occupancy costs with the capital costs of each school, while Figure 3 shows the occupancy elements as percentages.

Table II. Primary schools - occupancy and capital costs, 1999 prices

Figure 3. Primary school occupancy costs