Galliford shares slump on Edinburgh schools closure scandal

Shares in construction firm Galliford Try slumped on Monday as the company found itself caught up in the Edinburgh schools closure scandal.

Seventeen schools in Edinburgh built under a £360m private finance initiative deal were closed by city officials due to safety fears over their construction.

The five high schools, 10 primaries and two special schools were built by the Edinburgh Schools Partnership (ESP), a consortium of Amey and Miller Construction and the Bank of Scotland.

Galliford Try bought Miller Construction in 2014. Edinburgh Council has said it will not be footing the bill for any remedial work to make the schools safe.

The problems first came to light in January when a large section of a building wall was blown off at Oxgangs primary school during Storm Gertrude.

The Edinburgh Evening News reported the closures came after a contractor carrying out repairs at Oxgangs and another school warned on Friday of “an absence of header ties in sections of the buildings”, making the schools unsafe to occupy.
Header ties are structural fixings that attach the top of a wall to the wider building, providing extra reinforcement.

Edinburgh chief executive Andrew Kerr and senior education officials met with ESP representatives on Sunday to discuss the issue.

“I also reminded them of their contractual and financial obligations and want to assure Edinburgh residents that they will not be left footing the bill,” he said.

Structural surveys were this week to be carried out on the secondary schools affected.

Council leader Andrew Burns said ESP had been unable to guarantee the schools were safe to open on Monday.

“Clearly we have every right to expect these schools to have been built to a good standard and in accordance with industry practice. We now know this isn’t the case. ESP have let the council down but more importantly they have the let children, parents and staff of this city down.”

Share in Galliford were down 6% to 1317p at 1142 BST.