It's official: Building Schools for the Future programme axed by Government

The £55 billion Government scheme to rebuild and refurbish every secondary school in England is to be axed, Michael Gove confirmed today.

The Education Secretary said the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme had been beset by "massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy".

Some 715 schools will see their re-building projects cancelled as a result of today's decision.

Some 706 schools that have reached "financial close" - where work is ready to begin - will still go ahead, the Department for Education (DfE) said.

Of the 715 secondaries that will not now get their building work, 180 were supposed to be new builds, and 319 were due to be remodelled or refurbished.

A further 123 academy building projects are to be reviewed on a "case-by-case basis", the Department said.

Speaking in the Commons this afternoon, Mr Gove told MPs that building an airport in Hong Kong had been quicker than building new schools through BSF.

Outlining the nine steps of the BSF process, Mr Gove said: "It is perhaps no surprise that it can take almost three years to negotiate the bureaucratic process of BSF before a single builder is engaged or brick is laid.

"There are some councils which entered the process six years ago which have only just started building new schools. Another project starting this year is three years behind schedule.

"By contrast, Hong Kong International Airport, which was built on a barren rock in the South China Sea and can process 50 million passenger movements every year, took just six years to build - from start to finish."

The BSF scheme was responsible for about a third of the Department for Education's capital spending, Mr Gove said.

"But throughout its life it has been characterised by massive overspends, tragic delays, botched construction projects and needless bureaucracy," he said.

Mr Gove said BSF had "failed to meet any of its targets".

While 200 secondaries were meant to have been rebuilt by the end of 2008, only 35 had been completed, with a further 13 refurbished, Mr Gove said.

In total, 180 schools have now benefited from the BSF scheme.

Setting out his reasons for scrapping the scheme, Mr Gove said that the expenditure had not guaranteed quality.

"One BSF school was built with corridors so narrow the whole building had to be reconstructed, another had to be closed because the doors could not cope with high winds, one was so badly ventilated additional mobile air conditioners had to be brought in during the summer and pupils were sent home."

Shadow education secretary Ed Balls called the axing of the scheme "a tragedy" for pupils, teachers and parents who would have benefited from new facilities.

"Today is a black day for our country's schools," Mr Balls told the Commons.

Meanwhile, it was also announced today that education projects worth £1 billion - in addition to the BSF programme - are to be axed in the latest round of Government cost-cutting.

Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander said the Department for Education would bear the brunt of a decision to cancel a series of spending commitments made by Labour.

He said £1.5 billion of cuts in four departments were required because the outgoing administration had been relying on "unrealistic" Whitehall underspends to fund them.

Other departments being forced to scale back are Business Innovation and Skills (£265 million), Communities and Local Government (£220 million) and the Home Office (£55 million).

It comes on top of £10.5 million of Labour-initiated schemes cancelled or put on hold last month and more than £6 billion of efficiency savings being targeted across Whitehall.

Mr Alexander said: "The previous government committed to spending money it simply did not have, but this coalition Government has taken action to address this serious situation.

"The decisions have not been easy, but the understanding and co-operation of my Cabinet colleagues has enabled us to act swiftly to ensure that the nation can live within its means.

"The reality is that these unfunded spending promises should never have been made because the money was never there to pay for them. We did not make this mess, but we are cleaning it up."

Mr Alexander announced last month that he had identified a "black hole" of spending commitments which relied on underspend cash from the "end year flexibility" system - topped up where needed from Government reserves.

"It was highly unrealistic to expect that underspending would have been sufficient to cover these commitments," he said today in a written Commons statement.

"There is insufficient contingency reserve to cover the remainder. Without remedial action, the difference would result in higher borrowing this year."

The cuts were "an unavoidable consequence of the unaffordable level of previous commitments".

A spokesman for BIS said the cash would be taken from projects being scrapped altogether or scaled back - including the Automotive Assistance Programme, Working Capital Scheme and Trade Credit Insurance.

Some of the savings would also come from the cancellation of a £80 million Government loan to Sheffield Forgemasters - one of a series of projects worth £2 billion which were axed by Mr Alexander last month.

The Treasury said that was the only overlap between that announcement and the £1.5 billion of savings outlined today.