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| Whitehall misses targets on school-building scheme, says MP
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To meet its target to renew all
England's 3,500 secondary schools by 2020, the government would have to build 250 schools a year |
Commenting on the National Audit Office report on renewing the secondary school estate through the Building Schools for the Future programme, South Norfolk MP Richard Bacon, a member of the Commons public accounts committee, said:
“The Department for Children, Schools and Families said it
wanted 200 secondary schools rebuilt, refurbished or re-equipped by
December 2008, yet only 42 schools were completed by this deadline and
the programme’s costs have soared.” |
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“The Department would now have to complete 250 schools every year in order to renew all of England’s 3,500 secondary schools by 2020. This is unrealistic.” “Time and again, key government projects suffer huge cost or time overruns because Whitehall deludes itself with far-fetched assumptions and unrealistic targets. Programmes like Building Schools for the Future will continue to run into trouble unless government departments stop kidding themselves over the scale of the challenges involved.” Mr Bacon was speaking as the National Audit Office published its report into the Building Schools for the Future programme. The programme aims to rebuild, refurbish and provide new Information Technology for all 3,500 secondary schools in England by 2020. The report finds that the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) underestimated how long it would take to launch the programme and build the schools. The total cost of renewing the secondary school estate will be between £52 billion to £55 billion which is £7 billion to £10 billion more than was estimated at the outset of the programme. To include all schools in the programme, the report also finds that 250 schools will need to be built a year, meaning the number of schools in procurement and construction at any one time will need to double from 2011 onwards.
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| © Richard Bacon 2010 | ||||||||
NAO REPORT: