SCORES of schools left in limbo by a freeze on building projects face a long period of uncertainty, the Government admitted yesterday.
A review of the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, affecting more than £1bn of projects in eight North-East local authorities, has not even begun, it emerged.
The admission means plans to renovate schools throughout the region are now uncertain.
Among them is a £41m project to refurbish three secondary schools in Darlington – Longfield, Branksome and Hurworth. Officials say no date for “financial close” has been set.
A department for education (Dfe) spokesman told The Northern Echo: “How we carry out the review has not been worked out yet. We are only three weeks into the new government and there has been a huge amount of work.”
The delay will come as a major disappointment to parents, teachers and MPs, who had urged ministers to end the anxiety as a soon as possible.
The controversy dominated education questions in the Commons yesterday, when Alex Cunningham, the Stockton North MP, said no secondary schools had been built in the town for 40 years.
Meanwhile, Education Secretary Michael Gove revealed where the £670m of cuts allocated to his department this year will fall, including reductions in one-to-one tuition and the gifted and talented pupils programme New Diplomas in science, humanities and languages, due to be introduced from September next year, will be scrapped, although the move will save only £1.77m.
Mr Gove also axed schemes to offer free school meals to all primary school pupils in five areas from September, but the trial already under way across County Durham will continue.
BSF programmes have been frozen in County Durham (£398m), Hartlepool (£105m), Stockton (£171m), Redcar and Cleveland (£90m), Darlington (£41m), Sunderland (£127m), Gateshead (£85m) and North Tyneside (£89m).
In the Commons, Mr Cunningham warned of “considerable anxiety”, adding: “Some £5m has been invested by Stockton Borough Council and partners and they are hurtling towards appointing a preferred bidder.
“Can the Secretary of State please assure the people of my constituency, who have not had a new secondary school for 40 years, that children in our area can still look forward to new and redeveloped schools?”
Mr Gove said he sympathised with those affected, but said there was a need to review the entire BSF programme to deliver better value for money.
He added: “I know a significant amount has been invested in Stockton – more, perhaps, than needed to be, because of the addition bureaucracy.”
Speaking after Question Time, a DfE spokesman said BSF needed a root-and-branch review because £60m had been spent on consultants – and only 170 refurbished schools had opened.
