Axing school building programme hits poor hardest admits government

DfE assessment of consequences of ditching Labour initiative concludes children from disadvantaged homes most affected

• Polly Curtis, Whitehall correspondent
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 12 September 2010 17.01 BST
• Article history

 

 

Ed Balls, the shadow schools secretary: 'Once again we have clear evidence that the victims of the ... unfair and economically dangerous cuts are the poorest and those in most need.' Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA

Children from the poorest homes will suffer the most from the coalition's decision to axe the school rebuildling programme, the government has admitted for the first time, prompting renewed accusations that it is failing to keep its promise to make cuts fairly.

The 675 schools that were told in July that plans for refurbished or rebuilt buildings had been stopped have higher proportions of children on free school meals, who speak English as a second language and have special educational needs, than the national average. The Department for Education's (DfE) own assessment of the consequences of the decision to scrap Labour's Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme concludes that children from disadvantaged homes will be more affected.

Ed Balls, the shadow schools secretary, said: "Once again we have clear evidence that the victims of the Tory-Lib Dem government's unfair and economically dangerous cuts are the poorest and those in most need.

"Michael Gove has got the wrong priorities. He has spent four months working on a plan for just 16 free schools while some 700,000 children have started the new term in schools that will now be condemned to having second-class facilities."

The DfE insisted that other plans, including a pupil premium to pay schools more for children from poorer backgrounds, would help close the attainment gap between rich and poor. But the admission adds weight to recent claims that the coalition's promises to introduce spending cuts fairly have been broken. Research by the Trades Union Congress to be unveiled at their conference tomorrow reveals that the full impact of the public spending cuts will fall on the poorest in society who are most reliant on state services.

The decision over the axing of BSF also highlights the problems the coalition face once the cuts begin to fall in its MPs' constituencies. There was a backlash against the education secretary Michael Gove from MPs on both sides of the coalition under pressure from their constituents. Today, the Sunday Times reports that the Liberal Democrat children's minister Sarah Teather arranged a meeting between Gove and council leaders from her Brent constituency days before those schools won a reprieve from the cuts.

The equality impact assessment required by law, after the decision to stop the school rebuilding programme, concludes: "It is clear from the data that the stoppage of these school projects has inadvertently impacted slightly more on children who can be seen to be disadvantaged in terms of social deprivation." Schools that were previously earmarked for rebuilding had on average 17% of pupils on free school meals compared with a 13% national average.

A DfE spokesman said: "We understand people's disappointment but the BSF programme was wasteful, needlessly bureaucratic and seriously behind schedule. It would have been inexcusable to have continued with the programme.

"Ministers have been clear that their overriding priority is closing the gap in attainment for pupils from disadvantaged communities by focusing capital investment in areas of the greatest need and introducing a new pupil premium to provide additional support in the classroom."
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