Government 'will continue investing in school buildings'

Thu 29 Jul 2010

The education secretary has insisted that the government will continue to invest in school buildings.

Michael Gove told the Education Select Committee that the end of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme does not mean schools will no longer receive any funding for improvements.

He said the BSF initiative was "bureaucratic" and accounted for just a third of capital investment overall in schools.

As a result, he believes it should become much easier to allocate funds to schools in the future.

Mr Gove said the coalition government is keen to ensure there is more money available for primary schools in particular "than might otherwise have been the case".

He added that the BSF scheme was the subject of lots of "rhetorical hype", which meant its abolition led to erroneous fears about the future of school buildings.

Andrea Squires, a partner at Winckworth Sherwood Solicitors, commented: "The clarification is welcome although not unexpected.

"Of course there needs to be continued investment, there remains a pressing need to address decades of under investment in school buildings as well as changes in approach to teaching.

"Schools will be anxious to know what Gove's priorities are for investment and how he intends to deliver it."

The BSF initiative was introduced by the Labour administration under Tony Blair in 2004.