Councillors welcomed scrapping of school building programme, says Gove
The controversial decision to scrap long-awaited school building projects is supported by councillors and MPs - who wrote to say “thank you”, Education Secretary Michael Gove has claimed.
He insisted councils were pleased to be rid of the bureaucracy and paperwork, after he scrapped a nationwide building scheme called Building Schools for the Future Scheme.
It meant 13 planned school rebuilds or refurbishments were cancelled in Birmingham, and another seven, planned for academies, have been suspended pending further discussion.
Building schemes in other authorities were also axed, including nine in Sandwell, in the Black Country.
But quizzed by a House of Commons inquiry, Mr Gove insisted: “One of the things I have been struck by is that in the letters I have received from MPs, local authorities and others, many have said, ‘we are sorry our schools aren’t going ahead but thank you for ending Building Schools for the Future.
“‘The waste, the bureaucracy - it was a total waste of our time and an immensely frustrating process. Please put something simpler in its place.’
“It’s my job to ensure we can get money as quickly as possible, as simply as possible, to those schools in the greatest need.”
But his comments were condemned by Birmingham MPs.
Khalid Mahmood (Lab Perry Barr) said: “What he has done is an absolute shame.
“If there is too much bureaucracy then you cut the bureaucracy, You don’t abolish rebuilding scheme when there are schools that need it.”
And Richard Burden (Lab Northfield) said: “If Michael Gove really believes what he is saying then he is living on a different planet.”
The first wave of the Government’s new academy schools could be in place as early as September, after the Academies Act was rushed into law this week before the summer break.
