Balls: BSF funding is safe

The government will maintain its financial commitment to the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, according to education secretary Ed Balls.

Addressing the Labour party conference yesterday, Balls said the government has committed itself to maintaining spending on the programme.

Balls said: “We will not deny school leavers the college and apprenticeship places they need, or cut our school building programme to pay for an unfair and unfunded free market education experiment.”

The secretary accused the Conservatives of planning to cut investment in schools and asserted that Labour was the only party to “prioritise investment in education.”

The Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme will see every state secondary school in England, around 3,500 in total, rebuilt or remodelled over the lifetime of the programme.