Leading school insurer Zurich Municipal has criticised private finance school developers of failing to tackle the escalating rates of arson and break-ins at Britain's schools.
Zurich Municipal underwriting manager, Larry Stokes, said: “We ask private finance consortia about design, but that is not the basis for their specifications. They just use a basic specification. They have their eyes on the pennies.”
The advent of private finance has seen the biggest school building programme for decades, says Stokes, who is also chairman of Arson Prevention Bureau's schools working group.
Liverpool has a private finance initiative (PFI) scheme for 20 schools and Glasgow has one for 30, he added.
But Stokes said the PFI consortia had failed to take the opportunity to upgrade security by design.
“They all seem keen on CCTV, but that is not the answer,” he added.
“We are trying to get the contractors interested in sprinklers. They have a pay-back period of eight to ten years and the PFI consortia run the schools for 25 years.
“There is a clear economic argument. But they are just looking at capital costs,” Stokes said.
Insurers are unable to mitigate the risks with deductibles, explained Stokes.
“We are able to get local authorities to pay up to £1m of fire cost in deductibles. But PFI schools are all ground-up (deductibles are not enforced),” he said.
The cost of arson attacks on schools will reach a record £87m this year, according to Zurich. The previous record was £65m last year.
Stokes said the rising number of 15-year-olds was the problem. This age group was the most likely to commit arson, said Stokes.
To help PFI consortia improve design, Zurich has produced a new design guide.
As well as pushing for the incorporation of sprinklers, the guide advocates palisade fencing, fire alarms and intruder alarms.
