BSF applications resubmitted

The government is to respond imminently to the six councils that successfully launched a High Court challenge against the scrapping of 58 Building Schools for the Future projects.

A spokesperson for the Department for Education confirmed all six councils had resubmitted applications for funding by the 11 April deadline.

Education secretary Michael Gove’s decision to axe the school projects, worth £1bn, was ruled unlawful because he failed to consult properly with councils.

Justice Holman said that in five of the cases, the failure was “so unfair as to amount to an abuse of power”.

But the judgment disappointed some of the councils by falling short of ruling the schemes should go ahead and instead indicating the decision lay firmly with the education secretary.

The department for education spokesperson said: “We can confirm that we have received applications for all the schemes affected by the judgment and we will respond in due course.”