Asquith Court Schools chief executive Peter Aughterson said Jarvis was the market leader in renovating or building new state schools in the UKthrough the Private Finance Initiative (PFI). The joint venture will seek to build and manage nurseries on the sites of maintained primary and secondary schools being developed by Jarvis through PFI.
The joint venture will also seek to build and operate Neighbourhood Nurseries. Other nursery chains have not sought to develop neighbourhood nurseries in significant numbers because the funding is distributed locally rather than nationally. However, Asquith Court has offered its services to early years development and childcare partnerships if they have a suitable site for a purpose-built neighbourhood nursery. Jarvis and Asquith Court will each hold 50 per cent of the shares of the joint venture company, which will have an independent management team and develop its own staff.
Jarvis has been in the national press in recent weeks because one of its divisions held the contract for maintaining the track at the site of the Potters Bar rail crash. Mr Aughterson said Asquith Court had been in discussions with Jarvis for six months and had been due to sign a deal on the day of the crash. After delaying for three weeks and talking to its investors, the group decided to go ahead.
He said, 'The division we are dealing with is a completely separate company within Jarvis, with no link to the rail and road division. We have the ability, if things work out in a way we are not happy with, to unwind the joint venture, though that's not something we would want to do.'
