PFI

The contract is the largest of its kind in England and will be among the first PFI deals in the country to expire.

Stoke City Council said its priority was to get the schools handed over "safe, warm and dry", while the main contractor engaged under the PFI contract, Equans, said the buildings had been well maintained.

Ian Beardmore, chief executive of Newman Catholic Collegiate - a group of six primaries and one secondary in the Stoke PFI contract - describes the charges his schools have been paying for the past 25 years as "astronomical".

The BBC has seen a letter, sent by Stoke-on-Trent City Council to all 88 schools in the Stoke contract, saying it "remains concerned" the PFI company "may not have sufficient funding available to them to complete all of the handback works".

His company has worked on PFI school contracts across England.