School projects face axe under Tories claim

SCHOOL rebuilding projects across Oldham would be axed if the Conservatives win the general election, the government alleged yesterday.

Ministers leapt on an admission by Tory schools spokesman Nick Gibb that schemes that had not reached “financial close” by election day “won’t be guaranteed”.

There are 58 local education authorities where final contracts to deliver the flagship Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme — the largest since Victorian times — have not yet been signed, including Oldham.

The revelation comes as pressure grows on David Cameron’s party to explain how it plans to meet its pledge to cut the budget deficit faster than Labour.

The Conservatives badly need to free up cash for its own expensive plans to create “free schools”, to be set up by parents, charities and businesses.

That policy would allow anyone to turn an existing building — even a disused office block, or a community hall — into a school, without the need for planning permission.

Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, said: “We already knew the Tories were planning to cut our school rebuilding programme by £4.5bn in areas which have not yet joined the BSF programme.

“But the admission that all areas where final contracts have not yet been signed and sealed could also see building projects cancelled means hundreds more schools than we previously thought are at risk.”