We are committed to investing more than £15 billion over four years in good school buildings. Despite the tough decisions we have taken, we will still be spending more on school buildings each year on average than Labour did in their first two terms.
We’re focusing capital spending where it is most needed by prioritising dilapidated buildings and demographic pressures. Labour’s Building Schools for the Future didn’t prioritise either of these problems, leaving some of the most dilapidated schools in the country to crumble while failing to address the shortage of primary school places. Moreover, hundreds of millions of pounds were wasted on consultants, lawyers and design advisers.
Our Priority School Building Programme will deliver much better value for money for the taxpayer – compared to BSF, procurement time has been cut by up to 14 months, construction will begin in half the time and project costs are anticipated to be 30 per cent lower