New authorities to join BSF programme

15.07.2009

6 new authorities will join the join the £55bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme every 3 months. The first to benefit are Barnet LBC, Bolton MBC, Hampshire CC, Peterborough City Council, Sunderland City Council and Wigan MBC the Government has announced. Sunderland is the only one of this latest wave of councils already involved in an earlier wave of BSF.

Children’s secretary Ed Balls said the authorities had been assessed as ready to deliver proposals to rebuild or refurbish their secondary schools. “These are challenging times when every penny of taxpayer’s money is rightly scrutinised - but I am clear that allowing six new projects joining BSF each quarter this year is prudent and affordable and means that areas will benefit as soon as possible,” he said.

Tim Byles, chief executive of Partnerships for Schools (PfS), said the government’s announcement sent a “clear message” that the programme was on course adding that “Teachers, parents and pupils in the 86 schools already open bear witness to the positive difference that BSF is making in their local community.”