By Vivienne Russell | 9 May 2012
Councils have hit out at the government over ‘intolerable’ delays in providing the most dilapidated schools with renovation funds.
The Local Government Association today said that none of the £2bn earmarked for the Priority Schools Building Programme had yet been paid out. Councils were having to use their own funds to pay for emergency repairs, the body claimed.
Bids for the scheme were due in October with the first funding decisions in December but no announcements have been made. A decision was then promised in February, the LGA said, but schools are now being told it will be made in ‘due course’.
LGA research shows that the programme has been overwhelmed with applications, with 101 English councils bidding for funds to fix 476 schools.
David Simmonds, chair of the LGA’s children and young people’s board, said the delays to the scheme were ‘intolerable’.
He said: ‘It’s clear from these figures that government funding is not going to be able to stretch to cover all the schools that need it. The situation is now unacceptable and threatens to severely impact on our children’s education.’
Simmonds added that schools and parents needed answers.
‘The Department for Education’s refusal to provide any reassurance is leaving schools in limbo and, with councils’ stretched education budgets having already suffered a 32% cut, there is little room for manoeuvre at a local level.
‘If these schools aren’t going to get support then councils need to know urgently so we can put alternative plans in place to bring the standards of classrooms up to scratch.’
A Department for Education spokeswoman said: ‘There has been huge interest in the programme. We are carefully assessing and reviewing each application.
‘We make no apologies for having a fair, thorough and rigorous bidding process. We are taking our time to get this right and will announce our decisions as soon as we can.’
