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Schools: Greenwich

Volume 458: debated on Tuesday 13 March 2007

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how much he estimates will be spent in the London Borough of Greenwich from the Building Schools for the Future budget on (a) primary schools and (b) secondary schools. (126688)

Greenwich's wave 1 Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project has been allocated capital funding of £169 million (including ICT) on the basis of the outline business case approved in January 2005. This level of funding will be confirmed only when a final business case for the project is approved which is scheduled to happen later this year. The authority has a further project in wave 5 of BSF. The funding allocation for this project has yet to be agreed.

Primary schools are not covered by BSF, but we are taking a similarly transformational approach to capital investment for the primary sector. The Primary Capital Programme aims to rebuild, remodel or refurbish at least half of all primary schools over the next 15 years. The programme will be rolled out nationally from 2009-10 when all local authorities, including Greenwich, will benefit from a share of £500 million of additional investment. This will be allocated by means of a simple, open formula—still to be determined. Subject to future Government spending decisions, we anticipate that the additional investment will continue at that level throughout the life of the programme.