Gavin Williamson – 2020 Statement on Rebuilding of Schools and Colleges
Below is the text of the statement made by Gavin Williamson, the Secretary of State for Education, in the House of Commons on 29 June 2020.
Today, the Government are announcing a transformative, 10-year school rebuilding programme as part of ambitious plans that will benefit schools and colleges across England.
Investing in our school and college buildings is vital to delivering the world-class education and training needed to get the country back on its feet.
We are committing to a 10-year, multi-wave rebuilding programme for schools. This will replace poor-condition and ageing school buildings, with modern, energy-efficient designs, transforming education for thousands of pupils.
We will start with 50 schools in the most need of repair, supported by over £1 billion in capital funding—with full details of these projects and the wider, long-term programme to be set out following the spending review. We expect construction on the first sites to begin from autumn 2021.
We are also providing £560 million of additional condition funding for the school system this year to help support essential maintenance projects. We will set out details of how this additional capital funding will be allocated shortly. This is on top of the £1.4 billion already provided for school maintenance in financial year 2020-21.
Part of the £1.4 billion funding for 2020-21 announced in April is provided through the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), to support essential maintenance projects in schools across England. Today, I am announcing the outcome of the 2020-21 CIF bidding round. Over £434 million will fund 1,476 CIF projects across 1,243 eligible academies, sixth-form colleges and voluntary aided schools.
Details of today’s CIF announcement are being sent to all CIF applicants and a list of successful projects will be published on www.gov.uk. Copies will be placed in the House Library.
In March this year, the Chancellor announced that we are going to transform FE colleges across the country, investing £1.5 billion of new capital over the next five years, starting in 2021.
Today, we are announcing that the Department for Education will bring forward £200 million of this capital funding to this year. This will enable FE colleges in England to undertake immediate remedial work in this financial year to upgrade the condition of their buildings and estates. We will set out further plans on capital investment to upgrade the FE college estate in England in due course.
