A 32-place Inclusive Learning Hub.
For professionals specifying and building within the UK education sector, the current landscape presents a familiar frustration. Whether consulting for a Multi-Academy Trust (MAT), a Local Authority or an Independent School, specifiers are frequently met with the same roadblock: clients desperately need to expand or upgrade their estates, but their Capital Expenditure (CapEx) budgets are frozen or severely oversubscribed.
Across the country, the demand for new classrooms, dining halls, performing arts studios, and specialist SEND provision is colliding with a profound lack of upfront funding. However, a shift in procurement regulations is providing a workaround. By leveraging compliant lease financing for modular buildings, specifiers can present their education clients with a fully funded, net-zero solution that bypasses the capital waiting game.
MOVING FROM CAPEX TO OPEX
Historically, acquiring a high-specification school building required a massive upfront capital outlay. Now, thanks to the IFRS16 Maintained Schools Secretary of State Finance Lease Class Consent 2024, trusts and schools have the freedom to procure modular buildings using leases. Working Early Years Provision alongside specialist public sector funding partners, TG Escapes Modular offers a procurement route that spreads the cost of a bespoke new facility over a maximum 10-year term. This is not a PFI scheme – the school assumes responsibility for the building from day one, with fixed, predictable payments moving the financial burden from the CapEx to the Operational Expenditure budget.
THE INCLUSIVE LEARNING HUB
While this leasing model can be applied to any TG Escapes building, from a mainstream primary classroom block to an independent school’s sports pavilion, the financial efficacy is best illustrated by looking at the high-stakes SEND sector.
TG Escapes has launched pre-designed ‘Inclusive Learning Hubs’ (16, 32 and 64-place models) to help schools rapidly build inclusion bases. If a school built a 64-place hub traditionally, the CapEx requirement would be around £4.2m.
Under the TG Escapes lease model, that same facility can be procured from £9k per student, per annum (over a 10-year term). For a 32-place hub (£2.4m CapEx), the lease equates to roughly £10,090 per student annually. For a Local Authority currently spending over £100,000 a year on a single out-of-area independent placement, the return on investment is undeniable.
This same logic empowers specifiers in the independent sector. A bursar who cannot afford a £1.5m upfront hit for a new Early Years centre can comfortably digest a predictable annual lease, using the new facility’s immediate fee-generation to cover the cost.
HIGH-SPECIFICATION, PERMANENT ASSETS
For specifiers, recommending a leased modular building does not mean compromising on quality or compliance. TG Escapes design bespoke, timber-frame buildings that offer a 50-year structural lifespan. They are fully compliant with DfE Building Bulletins, meeting rigorous output specifications for robustness, fire safety, and acoustics. Furthermore, these buildings champion ‘biophilic design’. Using natural timber finishes, expansive floor-to-ceiling glass, and excellent indoor-outdoor flow, these architectural features are shown to lower occupant stress levels, improving educational outcomes and staff retention.
SPEED, SUSTAINABILITY AND CERTAINTY
TG Escapes buildings are designed to be net-zero in operation, with air source heat pumps and solar PV as standard, immediately contributing to a client’s decarbonisation targets while slashing utility bills. Because the structures are manufactured off site using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC), a building can be on site and operational in 16-50 weeks from planning approval, depending on size. This drastically reduces the noise, dust, and heavy plant traffic that plagues traditional school building sites.
Pre-planning packs help to accelerate the planning process (reducing the wait), while strategic design, tailored to align with permitted development rights where site-specific parameters allow, offer a pathway for streamlined delivery.
tgescapes.co.uk