The St Helens BSF programme boasts a strong PFI element with three of the eight projects utilising this financing route.

The partners must now wait for the outcome of the Government spending review next week to see whether the entire scheme can proceed to financial close.

In the first phase Interserve will construct Rainford High Technology College and De La Salle School for £47m

Rainford is being financed through a PFI model, which will see Interserve deliver facilities management services worth £8m to the school over a 25-year period once complete.

Six further schools, costing £100m, will be built in later phases and two of these will be procured through PFI.

E4L and St Helens Council will, together with BSF Investments, become partners in St Helens’s Local Education Partnership (LEP).

Financial close on the contract is expected in the autumn this year, allowing construction to begin straightaway.

Interserve’s chief executive, Adrian Ringrose, said: “This is our third such development programme, alongside Sandwell in the West Midlands and our award-winning partnership at Leeds.

“St Helens Council has clearly shown its commitment to providing children in the area with the latest educational facilities.”