Nearly £5 million of school repairs still need to be carried out – as a controversial PFI contract finally comes to an end this week. Stoke-on-Trent City Council's school PFI agreement – which was the first scheme of its kind in the country, as well as the largest, covering 88 schools – expires on Saturday after 25 years.

The deal mainly covered the maintenance of school buildings, and contractor Transform Schools (Stoke) Ltd was due to carry out £23.6 million of 'handback' works before the end of the PFI. While £16.6 million of works have been completed, with another £2.1 million carried out and undergoing validation, around £4.9 million still needs to be done.

The city council says this scenario was anticipated months ago and an agreement was reached with TSSL for outstanding works to be completed beyond the end of the PFI contract – the council has also agreed to do some of the repairs itself.

In April, council leaders agreed to set aside a £3.5 million 'backstop' to ensure works are carried out – this was government funding originally earmarked for school expansions, which was never needed for this purpose.

Stoke-on-Trent's schools PFI has been criticised for locking schools into making crippling unitary payments while some have struggled to get important repairs carried out. A number of schools have reportedly withheld payments due to their dissatisfaction at the service they are receiving.

The city council says that while its main focus at present is to ensure the outstanding maintenance work is done, a 'full evaluation' of the PFI agreement will take place at a later date.

Council leader Jane Ashworth, said: "The contract may be ending – but the work goes on. This was a very large, complex PFI agreement. Clearly we would have preferred all the works to be completed by this stage.

"Our focus now is on getting the job finished and making sure all schools are safe, warm and dry. We are committed to making sure that the children of Stoke-on-Trent – and our hard-working teachers – have the right conditions in which to thrive.

"We are asking all schools and trusts to keep working with us collaboratively to enable delivery of works in the interests of children, young people and staff."

Stoke-on-Trent Central MP Gareth Snell, who has been a vocal critic of the council's handling of the PFI, says it should do all it can to help the affected schools.

He said: "I understand from the council some of them will be offered rebates on their previously paid unitary charges if they will also accept responsibility for fixing some of the defects and outstanding works themselves.

"I've been urging the council to apply as many of the contractual reductions as possible so we don't end up seeing school money go to TSSL."

Mr Snell believes the current situation would be much worse if council chief executive Jon Rouse had not 'got a grip of it'.