By Lucy Phillips
24 September 2010
At least £15bn needs to be spent on school buildings over the next four years if there are to be enough places for every child, council leaders warned today.
The Local Government Association said the investment was the ‘absolute minimum’ needed to ensure ‘every child can be taught in a classroom which is safe and structurally sound’. Nearly £5bn is essential for the next financial year, the lobby group claimed.
The figures are based on a survey of local authorities conducted by the LGA and the Association of Directors of Children’s Services in August. Councils said a total of £29.3bn of capital funding was needed between 2011 and 2015, of which £15bn was ‘essential’.
LGA chair Baroness Margaret Eaton said: ‘Our children need schools which are safe, clean and attractive places in which they can learn. Spending money to maintain or replace existing school buildings is unavoidable.’
She called for all public funding for capital projects to be pooled in local areas to enable councils to get the best value for money and attract investment from the private sector. For example, building work on schools and health centres could be combined.
‘Local government is asking for freedoms which will make the country’s money go further. The common sense flexibility we’re requesting will mean councils all over the country can build new schools and improve neighbourhood facilities that residents use every day,’ Eaton added.
The survey findings have been used in the LGA’s submission to next month’s Spending Review and the government’s independent review of schools capital investment being undertaken by Sebastian James, director at electrical retailing group DSG International.
The James Review was commissioned in response to the government’s decision to scrap the Building Schools for the Future programme and will help determine allocations for capital investment during the next spending round.
More than 700 projects from the Building Schools for the Future programme werehalted following the abolition of the scheme.
