To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families when he plans to announce decisions on bids for funding under the Buildings Schools for the Future programme made by local authorities in response to his Department’s request for bids relating to proposed capital projects which could be brought forward to 2009-10. (263377)

[holding answer 13 March 2009]: We have not invited local authorities to bid to bring forward Building Schools for the Future (BSF) funding, because the strategic planning that underpins BSF means it is not a suitable programme to act as a fiscal stimulus. BSF typically involves the building of entire new schools; so design and planning need care and time. Accelerating the construction would curtail this planning and would thereby jeopardise the quality and transformational nature of the programme. We are however working with partnerships for schools to simplify procedures and accelerate delivery, and the procurement process has already been accelerated and costs reduced.

On 3 March, we announced allocations to authorities and schools of schools capital from other programmes brought forward from 2010-11 into 2009-10, to act as a fiscal stimulus and to bring investment benefits early to pupils and staff. Dorset was allocated advances totalling £12.0 million, of which £9.0 million is for the local authority, and £3.0 million for schools as an advance of devolved formula capital to be used by schools for their local priorities.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which local education authorities (a) have commenced projects under the Building Schools for the Future programme, (b) have been given approval for schemes but have yet to start and (c) have not been given approval for schemes. (263657)

The formal start of projects in BSF is the meeting between the local authority, DCSF and Partnerships for Schools (PfS) known as the remit meeting.

Please see following list:

Local authorities which have commenced BSF projects

Barking and Dagenham

Barnsley

Birmingham

Blackburn

Blackpool

Bournemouth

Bradford

Bristol

Cambridgeshire

Camden

Coventry

Derby

Derbyshire

Doncaster

Durham

Ealing

Enfield

Essex

Gateshead

Greenwich

Hackney

Halton

Hammersmith and Fulham

Haringey

Hartlepool

Hertfordshire

Hillingdon

Islington

Kensington and Chelsea

Kent

Kingston-upon-Hull

Knowsley

Lambeth

Lancashire

Leeds

Leicester

Lewisham

Liverpool

Luton

Manchester

Middlesbrough

Newcastle

Newham

North East Lincolnshire

North Lincolnshire

North Tyneside

Nottingham

Nottinghamshire

Oldham

Poole

Portsmouth

Redcar and Cleveland

Rochdale

Rotherham

Salford

Sandwell

Sheffield

Solihull

Somerset

South Tyneside

Southwark

St. Helens

Staffordshire

Stockton-on-Tees

Stoke-on-Trent

Suffolk

Sunderland

Tameside

Telford and Wrekin

Tower Hamlets

Waltham Forest

Wandsworth

Westminster

Wolverhampton

Worcestershire

Local authorities which have been given approval for schemes but which have yet to start

Bedford

Southampton

Walsall

Hounslow

Kirklees

Suffolk

Local authorities which have not yet been given approval for schemes to start

Barnet

Bath and North East Somerset

Bexley

Bolton

Bracknell Forest

Brent

Brighton and Hove

Bromley

Buckinghamshire

Bury

Calderdale

Central Bedfordshire1

Cheshire East1

Cornwall

Croydon

Cumbria

Darlington

Devon

Dorset

Dudley

East Riding of Yorkshire

East Sussex

Gloucestershire

Hampshire

Harrow

Havering

Herefordshire

Isle of Wight

Kingston upon Thames

Leicestershire

Lincolnshire

Medway

Merton

Milton Keynes

Norfolk

North Somerset

North Yorkshire

Northamptonshire

Northumberland

Oxfordshire

Peterborough

Plymouth

Reading

Redbridge

Richmond upon Thames

Rutland

Sefton

Shropshire

Slough

South Gloucestershire

Southend-on-Sea

Stockport

Surrey

Sutton

Swindon

Thurrock

Torbay

Trafford

Wakefield

Warrington

Warwickshire

West Berkshire

West Cheshire and Chester¹

West Sussex

Wigan

Wiltshire

Windsor and Maidenhead

Wirral

Wokingham

York

¹ Submitted an expression of interest in the BSF reprioritisation in advance of the boundary changes.

Notes:

1. Authorities which have had their remit meeting are considered to have started projects.

2. Authorities which are in included in Waves 1-6a of BSF but have not yet had their remit meeting are considered to have approval for schemes but have not yet started.

3. The authorities that have not yet entered the programme are considered to not yet have approval.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which schools in each local education authority area have been approved for funding for each wave of the Building Schools for the Future programme; how much has been allocated to each school; which company has been awarded each contract; and on what date each project (a) was or (b) will be completed. (263658)

Tim Byles, chief executive of Partnerships for Schools, will write to the hon. Member, and a copy of his letter will be placed in the House Libraries.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what assessment he has made of the merits of (a) refurbishment and (b) rebuilding of schools; what estimate he has made of the amount of energy which will be consumed for completion of the rebuilding programme; and if he will make it his policy to publish statistics on the number of schools (i) refurbished and (ii) rebuilt under his Department’s programmes. (263672)

The comparative costs and merits of refurbishing and rebuilding schools vary from one school to another. Options, including refurbishment and rebuilding as appropriate, are appraised and compared locally, by or on behalf of local education authorities.

The Department has not assessed the energy required for completion of the rebuilding programme. Refurbishment and rebuilding projects above a threshold are required to meet challenging targets based on a standard form of environmental assessment that takes into account construction methods.

In the 2007 publication “Better Buildings, Better Design, Better Education”, my Department provided information on numbers of schools rebuilt or improved in England since 1997, including 1,106 new schools and a further 27,000 new or improved classrooms. The information was derived from data received from local education authorities and we anticipate asking authorities for an update of the information later this year.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many local education authorities fall within the indicative prioritisation of first follow-on projects of the Building Schools for the Future programme; how much the bids submitted by each are; and on what date he plans to announce which authorities are to be given approval to proceed. (263675)

95 local authorities sent in revised expressions of interest for the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme which include proposals for first follow-on projects. I am making the indicative BSF prioritisation lists available in the House Libraries—they were announced on 2 March 2009.

Guidance to authorities on revising their expressions of interest included that follow-on projects should be up to £100 million in capital value, and Partnerships for Schools (PfS) provided a funding model to assist authorities. Details of projects, including capital value, will be appraised by PfS when it engages with authorities on their readiness to deliver.

I have not set dates for announcing formal entry into the BSF programme. Before then, PfS will engage with authorities to discuss their readiness to deliver and then assess the evidence that they provide. We aim to ensure that projects which formally enter the programme are fully ready to deliver: taking time to get this right at this stage ensures good and timely delivery later on.

I aim to bring all authorities into the programme as soon as is practicable, provided they are ready to deliver. Consideration will also be given to starting follow-on projects where this is appropriate in the interests of good overall programme management, for instance where an authority already in the programme needs to maintain momentum, or where larger authorities need to have a manageable flow of projects over the whole programme.