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Tories axe shameful school rebuilding work

With harsh words including ‘shameful’ and ‘tragic’, Conservative Education Secretary Michael Gove scrapped 715 school projects under Labour’s flagship Building Schools for the Future programme.

It came as no surprise when Gove announced yesterday he was axing BSF and published a full list of those school projects that are either not going ahead or being wound down.

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls called the Tory move a ‘tragedy’ and a ‘black day for our country's schools’.

A list of schools affected is available as a download from the BBC.

The £55bn BSF was set up in 2005 to rebuild and redevelop England’s 3,500 secondary schools by 2020. It was also to act as a catalyst for local regeneration efforts by linking new schools with housing and regeneration schemes.

But only 35 of a planned 200 secondary schools were completed by the first target date of the end of 2008. That has risen to 180 schools that have now been finished but Gove slammed the quality of work and design.


’One BSF school was built with corridors so narrow the whole building had to be reconstructed, another had to be closed because the doors could not cope with high winds, one was so badly ventilated additional mobile air conditioners had to be brought in during the summer and pupils were sent home.’

In the House of Commons Gove gave the reasons for chopping the programme as its ‘massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy’.


While around 715 schools will have their plans completely cut, just over 706 schools whose projects have reached the critical contractual stage of financial close will have their rebuilding completed.

Of the 715 secondary schools whose work is cut, 180 were in line for completely new buildings and not just refurbishment of older assets.

As well, 123 academy building projects will be reviewed on a ‘case-by-case basis’, according to the Department for Education. 

However, Gove did not say just how much money the scrapping of BSF would save the government as the coalition government of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats look to make massive savings to reduce the country’s budget deficit.

The cuts go deeper than just the BSF progamme, according to a statement from Graham Watts, chief executive of the Construction Industry Council.

He acknowledged that ‘58 BSF projects covering around another 700 schools have been cancelled with immediate effect’.

He also said that the government has launched a comprehensive review will look at all capital spending on education buildings from schools to sixth form colleges. The review team includes Kevin Grace, Tesco’s director of property services.

Details of the statement and the terms of reference for the review of schools' building are downloadable from the Department for Education.

Partnerships for Schools, the organisation responsible for management and delivery of capital spending on schools, including BSF, academies and the Primary Capital Programme, welcomed the review announced Gove. 

Partnerships for Schools will work closely with the review team and the Department for Education.

‘The review of schools capital will help ensure that the way in which future spending on school buildings and facilities is delivered matches the new government's priorities,’ said Tim Byles, chief executive of PfS, said. 


‘We look forward to working with (chairman) Sebastian James and the wider review team alongside the Department for Education to ensure that the future shape of schools capital investment ensures that the schools that need it most, get the funding first and that those investments represent excellent value for money to the public purse.’

Watts also noted the Department for Education has scrapped the £1m-a-year funding to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (Cabe) for its design review service linked to BSF.

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