Councils count cost of BSF cancellation, Nottingham considers legal action

Local authorities have spent some £160m on the legally-required preparation and paperwork for Building Schools for the Future projects that have now been cancelled, the Local Government Association has revealed.

The news comes as one council said it was considering a legal challenge to the Education Secretary’s decision. Michael Gove last week announced that he was bringing the BSF programme to a halt, cancelling more than 700 school rebuilding projects in the process.

The £160m figure comes from a snapshot survey of 67 councils conducted by the LGA. The money was spent on detailed public consultation, recruiting and commissioning designers and architects, negotiation of documents, preparation of strategic overviews and the creation of project boards.

The LGA, which said many councils and schools are “in limbo”, argued that preparatory work and plans drawn up under the BSF scheme should be eligible for consideration under any new programme to share out capital funding.

“Schools which have had programmes scrapped are also entitled to a clear explanation of why their project is no longer considered viable, and should get some guidance on when they might next attract investment,” the association added.

Cllr Shireen Ritchie, chair of the LGA’s children and young people’s board, said: “The Building Schools for the Future programme meant significant investment for many areas and has been a boost to local economies. Obviously families, schools and councils affected by the cuts to the programme will be bitterly disappointed. The process was over-bureaucratic and wasted councils’ time and money, but the key issue is that around 700 schools and 80 councils now have to deal with plans being cancelled and scaled back.

“Councils have invested millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money preparing for school building schemes which they are told will now not go ahead. Town halls which have embraced this Government initiative should not be out of pocket and their residents should not end up footing the bill.”

Ritchie added that it was encouraging that the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, had stressed his commitment to getting more core funding directly to schools, via councils. “Councils cannot now send good money after bad, so any future plans for school rebuilding should use preparatory work which has been done already as far as is practical,” she said.

Nottingham City Council has meanwhile signalled that it is assessing whether to bring a legal challenge, according to the Nottingham Post.

Cllr David Mellen, portfolio holder for children’s services, told the full council that it has correspondence which could be used for a “court-based challenge”.

He added that the council’s legal department was looking at what could be done about the axing of the BSF funding. The correspondence includes a letter from the strategic director of Partnership for Schools, Mike Walsh, which stated that funding for Trinity and Top Valley schools had been approved.

Mellen told his fellow councillors: “I believe we need in our motion the opportunity to use legal means if appropriate. It’s about standing up for city schools.”

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat councillors said legal action should not be taken, arguing that it would be too costly, the Nottingham Post reported.