Carillion joins a growing list of contractors to have reached financial close on the eve of the election.

The race to sign off big schools deals is fuelled by fears that the Tories will scrap the £65bn programme if they win the election.

The huge deal takes Carillion’s haul of  BSF and Academy work to £2.2 billion.

Carillion will now start delivering 26 schools in five phases over the next four years.

The first £72m work package includes two secondary schools and two special educational needs schools, which will be privately financed by a combination of borrowing and equity.

The Wolverhampton LEP team includes Wolverhampton City Council and Building Schools for the Future Investments LLP.

Carillion will put £5.2m into the two privately financed schools, where it also has a facility management deal worth £25m over 25 years.

The remaining 22 schools will be delivered in four further phases.  Some of these schools will also be privately financed and Carillion expects to make further equity investments in subsequent phases of the programme.

Carillion chief executive, John McDonough, said: “This latest success further consolidates Carillion’s position as one of the UK’s leading suppliers to the Building Schools for the Future and Academy programmes, for which we have now been selected to deliver projects worth nearly £2.2bn.