Highland £2.1bn community hubs: delivery model and phasing notes for engineers
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Highland Council has appointed Morgan Sindall, Morrison Construction, Robertson Group and Ogilvie as preferred main contractors for the first seven “point of delivery” community hub projects under its £2.1bn, 20-year Highland Investment Plan, including PoDs at Beauly Primary, Charleston Academy, Dingwall Primary/St Clements, Fortrose Academy, Inverness High School, Thurso and Tornagrain Primary. The programme, funded by capital investment plus 2% ring-fenced council tax revenue and targeting £750m in the first five years, consolidates schools, offices and depots into a single public estate model. Early contractor involvement with architects NORR and Holmes Miller and consultants such as AtkinsRéalis, Fairhurst and Turner & Townsend will shape consultation, design and pre-planning, with significant implications for site servicing, phasing and long-term asset performance across dispersed Highland communities.
Technical Brief
- £2.1bn Highland Investment Plan scheduled over a 20‑year capital programme, implying long-term phased delivery.
- Funding structure combines conventional capital with a fixed 2% annual ring‑fenced council tax allocation.
- Initial HIP tranche allocates £750m over five years, setting early cashflow and procurement envelope.
- Seven PoDs geographically span from Thurso to Inverness, driving dispersed logistics and contractor resourcing strategies.
- Morgan Sindall leads Beauly Primary and Charleston Academy PoDs, enabling potential design and supply-chain standardisation.
- Robertson delivers Dingwall Primary/St Clements and Tornagrain Primary PoDs, concentrating primary-education hub work under one contractor.
- Morrison Construction takes Fortrose Academy and Thurso PoDs, implying secondary‑school hub focus in coastal/northern locations.
- Ogilvie Construction is single‑site lead for Inverness High School PoD, a key urban hub within the network.
- Multi‑disciplinary teams include architects NORR, Holmes Miller and Highland Council’s in‑house Design & Construction group for front‑end design.
- Cost, risk and programme management support provided by Currie & Brown, Doig & Smith, Turner & Townsend and others across HIP packages.
Our Take
Robertson Group’s recent return to profit on £793m turnover (2025 results in our database) suggests Highland Council is placing long-duration Highland Investment Plan packages with a contractor that currently has balance-sheet capacity for a 20‑year framework-style pipeline.
With £750m earmarked over the next five years and seven named PoD projects across Inverness, Thurso and other Highland locations, this programme effectively creates a rolling workload buffer for regional players like Morgan Sindall, Morrison Construction and Ogilvie against more cyclical private-sector work in Scotland.
The ring-fencing of 2% of council tax revenue for the Highland Investment Plan signals a relatively predictable public funding stream, which will matter for consultants such as Atkins Realis, Turner & Townsend and Currie & Brown when advising on risk allocation and inflation indexing in long-term contracts.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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