The number of people involved and the massive fees that are paid, no wonder the cost of the schools is off the scale

(“BSF was not just about schools”, 16 July, page 22). Forty years ago the local authority would have designed the school using its own architects and the contractors priced it, with the lowest doing the project. How easy was that, and low cost?

Is it not possible to cut out all this “talking time” and the number of hangers-on, as it is now known what a good school building should be like? Just get the schools back on track and slice through the red tape. We should be told how much of the £55bn was to go on extortionate fees, the money for which could have built another few dozen schools.

AJ Marsh