Birmingham’s beleaguered construction sector received a much-needed boost as the developer awarded a £1.2 billion school revamp contract said local companies would get the lion’s share of the work.

Catalyst Education, which is led by Catalyst Lend Lease and Bovis Lend Lease, was selected by Birmingham City Council over a rival bid from Land Securities Trillium.

The developers were the last two to remain after a total of 60 organisations originally expressed interest in the bid.

The massive contract will see Catalyst Education lead the drive to rebuild or refurbish all 89 of Birmingham’s secondary schools by 2024 under the government’s multi-billion national Building Schools for the Future (BSF) initiative.

The BSF project is the largest single investment in improving school buildings in more than 50 years and the Birmingham element is the biggest schools transformation contract in the country owing to the city’s status as the largest education authority in England.

Roger Thompson, education sector director at Catalyst Education, said he intended to “keep the Birmingham pound in Birmingham,” and underlined the firm’s commitment to ensuring a high percentage of the construction work is awarded to local contractors and suppliers.

Catalyst Education is already involved in a similar project in Lancashire where it awarded 70 per cent of the construction work to local contractors and Mr Thompson was confident the firm would easily be able to exceed this figure in Birmingham.

Councillor Les Lawrence, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Families, said: “The project will also give impetus to the construction industry in the city at a time when it’s feeling a lot of pain. It will have a knock-on effect on other suppliers to give a stimulus to the wider economy.”

Due to the vast number of schools involved in Birmingham, the developments will take place over six phases.

The £152.4 million first phase will aim to start next April and be completed the following year. It involves the co-location of Mayfield Special School, Lozells Primary School and Holte Secondary onto a single site and the rebuild or refurbishment of Waverley, Four Dwellings High, Park View, Broadway, Moseley, George Dixon International, The International School, Stockland Green and Saltley schools.

The programme also includes the proposed creation of eight Birmingham academies in the city.

Catalyst Education’s supply chain partners for the project are building contractor Bovis Lend Lease, facilities manager Vita Lend Lease and ICT specialist Redstone Communications. A team of local, national and international architects will work on the designs and technological solutions for the new schools and academies.

One of the key priorities of the drive is to ensure secondary schools are able to provide the facilities needed to deliver the new curriculum for 14 to 19 year olds, which focuses on vocational skills.

The rebuild or refurbishment programmes will also incorporate up-to-date ICT equipment, flexible learning environments as well as sustainable building design and a focus on inclusion.

Birmingham City Council will partner with Catalyst Education to create a Local Education Partnership (LEP) to deliver the programme. The two organisations will also be working with the Partnership for Schools and the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

It is estimated work on five sample schools which have helped produce a model for the programme will begin in April 2009. The first school will open in September 2011.

The winner of the schools transformation contract was originally supposed to be announced last December, but a press briefing was cancelled owing to “a number of outstanding clarifications with the bidders.”