Gove axes £45bn BSF

Gove said he wanted to get best value for money and would bring the programme, aimed at transforming schools with state of the art buildings and ICT over the next 15 years, to an end. ICT spending through BSF had been predicted to reach £4.5bn over the lifetime of the programme. According to Gove, it would have been "irresponsible to carry on regardless" with a programme which he described as inflexible and needlessly complex. However, 706 schools will open under new arrangements being agreed by the coalition government. Of these nearly 386 schools are likely to be new build, 262 to be remodelled or refurbished and 26 will have an ICT refit only. The 123 academy projects which have not reached financial close will be reviewed on a case by case basis. Partnerships for School, the agency responsible for the BSF, academies and primary capital programmes, said it backed the review and that it would help ensure that future spending on schools matches the new government's priorities. Teachers' unions have been less impressed, however. Christine Blower, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers said Gove was using arguments against bureaucracy as a cover for massively reducing BSF. "Of course, there are always better ways of achieving major building projects, but there is no excuse for leaving schools which were promised new buildings swinging in the wind," she said. "Poor learning environments have a negative impact on the education of children and young people. School buildings were woefully run down prior to Labour coming to power in 1997 and while much has been done to improve them there is still a lot more to do." Shadow education secretary Ed Balls said Gove's announcement was a "black day" for schools. He said that the new education secretary would "go down in history as the man who snatched free school meals from 500,000 poorer pupils and has now in one stroke axed hundreds of brand new schools".