The Scottish Futures Trust said the latest round of savings would release sufficient cash to build another dozen schools.

In its annual performance assessment audited by Grant Thornton and the London School of Economics, much of the Trust’s claimed savings come from avoiding the use consultants.

The reports states: “Such has been the success of SFT’s focus on high quality sustainable design at a competitive price that within Scotland’s Schools for the Future programme, for example, enough money has been saved to build an additional 12 schools, increasing the total number from 55 to 67.”

A decision has yet to be made on where the extra schools will be built as part of the £1.25bn schools programme.

The SFT was set up to promote and support construction by dreaming up innovative financing and delivery systems, often using it muscle to borrow at a cheaper cost to the private sector.

Several initiatives are underway including the Scottish non-profit distributing model of finance and using private finance to fund house-building, with guarantees of rental payments provided by the Scottish government.

The Trust is also pioneering Hub framework agreements across Scotland and Tax Incremental Funding.