§ 6. Mr. G. Thomasasked the Minister of Education the value of the projects for rural reorganisation of schools submitted to him by local education authorities for 1956–57; and the value of those schemes he has not approved for that year.
§ Sir D. EcclesProjects for rural reorganisation proposed by authorities for the 1956–57 programme totalled about £11½million. Within the school building programme which I have already announced, I expect to be able to approve about half this work for starting in that year.
§ Mr. ThomasAm I to understand that the local authorities in the rural areas think they can complete the programme which they have submitted to him but that he thinks otherwise, or what reason is there for the cut in the estimate?
§ Sir D. EcclesThe reason is that the programme is larger than we originally thought it would be, as I explained to the House last week. By this instalment we shall, in fact, start half of the programme by 1957, so that the total programme will be started, one hopes, well within the next five years.
§ Dr. KingCan the Minister assure us that he is not going to let the Chancellor of the Exchequer interfere with his five-year programme for completing the organisation of rural all-age schools?
§ Sir D. EcclesThe Chancellor of the Exchequer, so far from interfering, has welcomed this programme and has accepted the fact that it is considerably larger than when I first put it to him.