Kier, which has a base in Quedgeley, has won itself a potential share of the government's £7 billion school and college building budget.

The firm, which built Gloucester's Transport Hub, redeveloped Shire Hall and built a new health centre in Gloucester, has been appointed to the Department for Education's 2021 Construction Framework, meaning it can bid for forthcoming projects.

The four-year agreement continues Kier's 14-year relationship with the DfE and will cover all types of education buildings in England, including schools, universities and further education and technical colleges.

Liam Cummins, Group managing director for Kier Construction, said: "As a strategic partner to the Department for Education, we are extremely proud to have delivered vital projects and facilities over 14 years of working in partnership through its national frameworks."

In Gloucestershire, Kier was appointed main contractor for the £30 million new secondary school at Leckhampton.

Cummins added: "We are delighted to be continuing this relationship, using our local teams and supply chain partners, many of whom are small businesses with key links to the communities we're working in.

"Our focus is very much on ensuring our projects demonstrate our capability in key areas including social and environmental sustainability, digital construction and modern methods of construction to continue to deliver first-class educational settings for the benefit of pupils, students, staff and local communities."

The 2021 Construction Framework can also be used to procure non-educational publicly funded schemes. This is the fifth time Kier has been awarded a position on the DfE's national framework having held places since the first Academies Framework in 2007. In that time, Kier has completed over 160 national framework projects worth over £2bn, providing or improving 139,000 pupil places.

All projects delivered by Kier through the framework will focus on embedding the themes of the Construction Playbook, a joint initiative between the government and the construction sector to use standardised design and the use of modern methods of construction to deliver optimal time and quality, improve outcomes for pupils and students, as well as support the delivery of net zero targets.