Government gives green light to 33 schools

The government has given the go ahead to 33 schools projects left in limbo when it scrapped the BSF programme last month.

Education secretary Michael Gove is expected to announce today that the 33 sample schemes in projects which had reached close of dialogue stage will all be allowed to proceed. Gove will also give the green light to 44 academy projects put on hold, but 75 further academies face a further funding review and are likely to be scaled back.

The move will offer some relief to construction firms reeling from the decision to scrap more than 700 projects when the government pulled the plug on the BSF programme. When Gove’s original announcement was made last month, only schemes which had reached financial close were allowed to proceed, but the sample schemes within projects which had reached close of dialogue were placed under review due to the amount of work that had already been done on the schemes.

The 75 academies that have not received approval in their current form must now wait until after the Comprehensive Spending Review in October to know how badly their funding will be squeezed.