8FE secondary build cost (1,200 places)
Economies of scale 6FE → 8FE
Going from 6FE to 8FE adds 33% more places but typically only 25-30% more GIFA and around 22-28% more cost , the sports hall, dining, plant and admin core scale less than proportionately. £/place falls from around £33,100 to around £31,700[LGA].
SRP standard design vs bespoke
The School Rebuilding Programme[SRP] uses a small set of standard designs for 8FE and 10FE secondary, with components and layouts repeated across schemes. The CF25 framework[CF25] contractors price against these standards, so headline £/place is tighter than bespoke. The trade-off is design-flexibility: changes to the standard incur cost-and-time premia.
Contingency for 8FE
Typical client-side contingency on an 8FE bespoke scheme is 7-10% (separately from the 5% abnormal allowance). On SRP standard schemes the contingency sits inside the contractor envelope; the client risk register is smaller.