The second phase of the largest Building Schools for the Future scheme in England is in limbo because of the impasse over which projects will get cut by the new government.

The £1.8 billion Kent BSF programme, which covers 134 schools, is due to finish in 2017.

A £600 million contract for the first phase of work was awarded in 2007 to a team headed by Kier, and including architects Clague, HKS and Lee Evans Partnership.

But the future of the larger second phase is unclear until the government decides which BSF projects it will cull.

Three firms – Skanska, Bouygues and Bovis Lend Lease - are waiting to bid for the scheme and have begun putting together teams of architects. Bovis’s team comprises BDP, DRMM, Make, Woods Bagot, JM Architects, Walters & Cohen as well as local practices Lee Evans and HMY.

But the job has still not been posted in Ojeu after being postponed twice already.

According to an internal email sent last November by Kent County Council’s director of capital programme, Grahame Ward, the second phase of work was supposed to have been advertised at the start of the year.

He told Sarah Hohler, the council’s cabinet member for education: “Based upon a January 2010 Ojeu notice, we would hope to reach financial close and the LEP2 [phase two winner] established by September 2011.”

It was then due to be advertised last month but was postponed again until after the election.