Analysis: bill is a result of austerity cuts and decisions made by the coalition education secretary
The £11bn worth of repairs for England’s schools, identified by the Department for Education’s own report, is the accumulated bill that goes back to the decision by Michael Gove to axe an ambitious programme of rebuilding.
The Blair government’s £55bn Building Schools for the Future plan – the biggest programme of its kind since the Victorian era – was a victim of the austerity budgets introduced by the coalition government after 2010, with Gove’s contribution being the abrupt cancellation of building works that were already approved and about to break ground. Some did eventually go ahead, mainly for Gove’s new academies.
