26 May 2006
Richard Bowker has resigned as chief executive of Partnership for Schools after less than nine months in the post.
Bowker will leave the organisation charged with leading the government's Building Schools for the Future investment programme in July. In September, the former chair of the Strategic Rail Authority will return to the transport sector as chief executive of the National Express Group.
Speaking to Public Finance, Bowker denied that his sudden move reflected any problems in either BSF or the Private Finance Initiative. Nor was it true that he had merely used the PfS post as a stop-gap while under Cabinet Office restrictions on regulators taking jobs in the private sector, he said.
Bowker did admit that the uncertainty around what the education white paper and Bill meant for the PFI had created 'hard work' for PfS, and that the organisation's communication with investors worried by the PFI might not have been perfect.
'In many respects, a trust is the same as a foundation school, which we have to deal with now,' he said. 'There's a bit of a myth that's come up around this and perhaps our communication has not been as good as it could have been, but there's nothing in the white paper that technically makes BSF any harder.'
'I do accept that in order to make things happen there's a lot of detail to be gone through. But in principle, there's no reason why the white paper should make BSF any harder at all and we've got to make sure the Bill doesn't change that.'
PFmay2006
