French Minister: "Building in very good condition"Following a visit by Valérie Pecresse, France’s Higher Education Minister, in January 2009 to King’s College’s Franklin Wilkins Building near Waterloo, Mrs. Pecresse said, “For a building that is 10 years old, it is in very good condition”.
Mrs. Pecresse underlined the advantages that the PPP model offers, enabling a university to entrust the management of the construction and maintenance of its new buildings to a private company.
A 120-strong Ecovert FM team has looked after the College’s building on Stamford Street since 1999 as part of a 25-year PPP contract. Services delivered include building fabric maintenance, mechanical & electrical engineering, lifecycle fund management, helpdesk, catering and security. The Ecovert FM team also delivers services to the College’s New Hunt’s House campus at London Bridge.
The visit by Mrs. Pecresse was prompted following her plan, Operation Campus, to implement PPP projects for ten universities in France. The two campuses - Franklin Wilkins Building and New Hunt's House - of King’s College, were the first university site redevelopments in the UK to be procured under a PPP scheme and were completed by Bouygues UK in 1999.
