Salford BSF contract gives RM 50% more

(By Anthony Miller – Monday 15th June 2009 7:45am). When education software and services firm RM announced it had been pre-selected for the Salford City Council BSF (Building Schools for the Future) contract at the end of last month (see here), they expected their share of the consortium deal would tally some £17m. Well, today the contract has been confirmed (see here), and it could be worth “up to” £26m over five years to RM. There should be more to come when neighbouring Wigan Council, signs up to the deal.

We have written much on RM over the years, not all of it in a positive vein, but a recent trip to their Abingdon headquarters re-inspired our enthusiasm (see ReEducational trip to RM). But let’s not lose sight of the fact that RM is still losing money on the twelve BSF contracts it had previously won, though hopefully they will become profitable in aggregate next year. Certainly education is a long term investment in the widest sense; let’s hope that RM (and its investors) can see the return in a timely manner.