Hopes shattered as school projects cancelled

Jul 6 2010 by William Green, The Journal

EDUCATION chiefs in the North East have hit out after dozens of school rebuilding projects were cancelled by the new Government.

Labour MPs warned children’s education would suffer with youngsters taught in classrooms “well past their sell-by date” after the coalition Government halted rebuilding of 46 schools in the region.

They were among 715 schools nationally where building projects will be stopped.

Education Secretary Michael Gove defended his decision to scrap the £55bn Building Schools for the Future programme, saying it had been characterised by “massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy.”

Speaking in the Commons, he said action was needed to tackle the “appalling” public finances and announced a review of all capital spending by his department.

But Shadow Education Secretary Ed Balls said the news was a “complete tragedy” and there were also warnings that the construction sector would be hard hit by the cancellation of the building contracts.

Last night Beccy Earnshaw, director of SCHOOLS NorthEast, said: “The end of the programme will shatter the hopes and expectations of the affected schools in our region. Many are operating in outdated and unsuitable buildings and have committed huge amounts of time, energy and expense preparing for their new school build.

“A new school sends a strong positive message to young people and their communities as to how highly we value their education. We cannot return to the days where teachers are forced to move buckets around the classroom to catch rain water while they are trying to inspire our next generation.”

The areas worst affected by yesterday’s announcement included North Tyneside, where 11 projects have been cancelled, and County Durham, which has lost 14 rebuilding schemes. By contrast, Newcastle will be unaffected as it was in the earlier waves of the programme.

Mr Gove said rebuilding would only go ahead where contracts had been fully approved and promised to write to local authorities to tell them.

And while promising to look “sympathetically” at 123 planned new academies – including two in County Durham – he offered no promises.

Bridget Phillipson, Labour MP for Houghton and Sunderland South, said Mr Gove’s decision would hit three schools in her constituency and prove “devastating for parents, teachers and the wider community”.

Blaydon MP Dave Anderson said local young people were paying for the coalition’s “ideologically driven” economic policy.

He said: “They have led the local education authority along and they have prepared full consultation programmes to no avail. It’s the Government’s insistence on destroying public sector provision that is behind this move.” Kevan Jones, Labour MP for North Durham, said the “devastating” news would have “a disproportionate effect on some of the poorest children in County Durham” and would be hit the local construction industry.

Vince Allen, regional spokesman for the National Union of Teachers, described the cuts as an “enormous loss” and warned the impact would not just affect pupils and teachers, but communities.

He said: “The announcement means that we will have a number of schools in the North East that have to continue using poor quality buildings that have possibly needed work for the last 30 or 40 years.” News of the school project cuts came as Treasury Secretary Danny Alexander announced the Department for Education must make £1bn in savings, following the coalition’s decision to cancel a series of spending commitments made by Labour.

He said £1.5bn of cuts in four departments were required because the outgoing administration had been relying on “unrealistic” Whitehall underspends to fund them. Other departments scaling back are Business Innovation and Skills (£265m), Communities and Local Government (£220m) and the Home Office (£55m).