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Government cancels school rebuilding projects
Tue 06 Jul 2010
Hundreds of proposed school refurbishments across England have been cancelled by the government.
The previous Labour administration set up the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project in 2004 to revamp and upgrade school buildings all over the country.
According to education secretary Michael Gove, carrying on with the programme would be irresponsible in the current economic climate.
Therefore, he has confirmed that more than 700 schools will no longer be refurbished or rebuilt under the BSF initiative, including 180 proposed new-builds.
However, work on 706 schools in the current BSF programme which have already reached financial close will go ahead as planned.
Mr Gove also confirmed that 123 academy projects that are currently in development but have not yet reached financial close will all be considered individually.
The education secretary added that the government plans to adopt a more flexible approach to investing in education, which would target the worst school buildings and reduce the amount of bureaucracy throughout the entire process.
Andrea Squires, a partner at Winckworth Sherwood Solicitors, commented: "Love or hate BSF, there is no doubt the prioritising of public sector investment in schools was welcome and a great deal of energy and enthusiasm was put into making it work.
"This significant scaling back of the programme and spending in general may not be a huge surprise but it will be a big disappointment to many schools who have already waited a generation for investment in their schools.
"What little money there is will have to work harder but with a clear policy of devolved decision making and responsibility, schools will be in the driving seat, for some, possibly for the first time."
