The Morgan Sindall-led Esteem consortium has been named as preferred bidder by Hull City Council for a £400m PFI Building Schools for the Future programme.

The group consists of Morgan Sindall Investments, Robertson Capital Projects and the Sewell Group and will carry out a 25-year concession to deliver seventeen schools, seven new builds and major refurbishment work to a further ten schools.

Work on the scheme will begin in February 2010 with a completion date set to January 2014.