The two major developments in education over the past week - the outcome of the judicial review into the scrapping of BSF and news of how £800m of academies funding will be distributed - have solved some of the questions over the future of the nation’s school building programme.

The judicial review decision, while offering a glimmer of hope to six councils, has also put paid to the notion that the government might be forced to reconsider its decision to scrap the rest of the BSF programme. This means nobody else has cause to continue hoping for a reprieve.

Bad news, yes, but cold certainty has to be better than unfounded optimism. Now this hope has been laid to rest, the government cannot be excused for any further delay in explaining what will happen to the shelved projects.

The Sebastian James review is now not likely to arrive before the spring and further delay would be extremely costly - to both pupils and, ultimately, the public purse.

Sarah Richardson is deputy editor at Building

Topics