PfS could be scrapped and city academies doubled

Michael Gove, the shadow education secretary, is to meet the head of the government’s schools procurement quango within weeks to discuss the future of the £45bn Building Schools for the Future programme.

The Tories have said they would consider scrapping Partnerships for Schools (PfS), the quango that administers the programme, but have committed to redirecting what remains of the programme’s £9.3bn budget to other education projects.

Gove said: “I’m due to talk to [PfS chief executive] Tim Byles in I think the next couple of weeks to discuss the future of the programme, at least in the medium term. There have been inefficiencies with how it has been administered, and I’ll need to ask some tough questions.”

However, Gove acknowledged that PfS had been overhauled recently, and said he would try to find out if it was worth saving.

Fifteen per cent of the BSF budget is yet to be committed to specific schools. This would amount to £1.4bn by 2011, but possibly as much as £4.5bn over the life of the programme.

The Tories propose that this money would be used to create twice the number of academy schools planned by the current government, with many of these achieved by adapting existing facilities.

Gove said there would be an increasing emphasis on refurbishment as opposed to new build, as well as redevelopment through schools’ existing budgets.

There have been inefficiencies with how PfS has been administered, and I’ll need to ask some tough questions

Michael Gove

The education commitments were one of the few points of relief for the construction industry at a Tory conference that was dominated by turmoil in the financial markets.

Vaughan Burnand, chief executive of Shepherd Construction, told delegates at an event held by the Construction Products Association and the Construction Confederation that education was one of the few sectors keeping the industry afloat during the credit crunch.

He said: “Private sector projects are either slow, very slow or stopped. Retail and industrial are almost non-existent. For us at the moment, it’s education, education, education.”

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, announced plans to open 10 city academies in the capital during his four years of office.

Ed Vaizey, shadow culture minister, said a new generation of Conservative schools would be design-led. He said: “BSF is a potentially missed opportunity in terms of design. It has put billions of pounds into our schools’ infrastructure, but there are few really good buildings, as Cabe has identified.”

Speaking at a fringe event organised by the RIBA, Vaizey praised Allford Hall Monaghan Morris’ Stirling prize-nominated Westminster academy. He said: “We are believers in city academies in terms of ethos, but there are other avenues in which they can be procured and we would want investment along the lines of the BSF programme.”

The generally upbeat mood of the conference was undermined by the chaos in the financial markets, with David Cameron making two unplanned speeches, on Sunday and on Tuesday to reassure delegates that he was not ignoring the issue. His main speech was due on Wednesday after Building went to press.