18 March 2005
Primary schools and further education colleges are to share in an £11bn capital investment boost over the next five years.
Colleges and schools were understood to be expecting some good news in the Budget, and Chancellor Gordon Brown delivered by extending the Building Schools for the Future programme, launched for secondary schools last year, to primary schools.
Further education colleges will also receive £1.5bn of capital investment over five years.
Almost 9,000 primary schools are to be renovated in a £9.4bn, five-year scheme. Funding will increase from £1.6bn in 2005/06 to £2.3bn in 2009/10, eventually matching the current £2bn a year scheme for secondary schools.
Local authorities will be central to this boost. However, if the scheme mirrors the BSF it will depend on private sector involvement, which will anger the unions.
Local education authorities are expected to form partnerships with recommended companies, including Capita, Atkins and Mott McDonald.
Chris Keates, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers, was positive about the boost. However, she added: 'I hope that the government does not allow the PFI and private sponsorship to taint this welcome announcement.'
Steve Sinnott, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers, was equally cynical. 'The controversies and insecurities of the Private Finance Initiative have taken the shine off government achievements in the secondary rebuilding programme,' he said.
The Association of Colleges, which held a Commons lobby to close a perceived funding gap between schools and colleges on March 16, said 'the disparity that Brown has sought to redress is just part of the equation'.
PFmar2005
