School Building Programme (Hansard, 2 May 1963)

§ 17. Mr. Swingler
asked the Minister of Education how many local education authorities and committees of excepted districts have expressed to him their dissatisfaction about the size of next year's school building programme; in how many cases he has found it possible to approve additional projects; and what sum of money still remains to be allocated.

§ Sir E. Boyle
Representations have been received from sixty-three English local education authorities and four excepted districts and from the Welsh Joint Education Committee. I shall need to complete my consideration of these appeals before deciding what additional projects I am able to approve. Priority must be given to the provision of new school places where there is a shortage. The final value of the programme will depend upon the review of capital investment and of the capacity of the building industry on which the Government is engaged.

§ Mr. Swingler
Does not the right hon. Gentleman appreciate that there is really widespread discontent among local education authorities, as evidenced 1293 by the number which have indicated their dissatisfaction to him? Will he, in the course of his review, look at the school building programme over the last ten years? Does he realise that, after such an examination, he must come to the conclusion that his Ministry has persistently underestimated the need for new school building, and will he, therefore, do his best in the Cabinet to step up the whole programme?

§ Sir E. Boyle
The hon. Gentleman must not exaggerate the effect of the figures I gave. By no means all the sixty-three authorities concerned were seriously critical. In some cases they wished only to make representations about one or two particular projects. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will recall that, during the course of this Parliament, education building starts as a whole have gone up by 43 per cent.

§ Mr. Willey
In view of the almost universal dissatisfaction among local authorities, and in view of the fact that it is necessary to take a decision very soon if they are to be given good notice for next year, will the right hon. Gentleman undertake that this figure will be reviewed and extended?

§ Sir E. Boyle
No; I cannot give any undertaking. The hon. Gentleman has himself drawn attention to the difficulty. I announced the interim programme as soon as I could precisely because of the length of time it takes to plan schools. We have a longer planning cycle than other Departments concerned with public investment. The final programme cannot be decided until all the public sector has been surveyed. This is the difficulty here. I shall reach a final figure as soon as possible, but it is necessary to survey the situation. The hon. Gentleman knows the trend of public investment at present. It is likely that pressure on building resources for public as well as private reasons will, in 1964–65, be higher.

§ Sir C. Osborne
Is the limiting factor money or just the physical resources of the building industry, and is the choice between building schools or, say, building hospitals and slum clearance?

§ Sir E. Boyle
The primary limiting factor here is pressure on building resources. [HON. MEMBERS: "Non- 1294 sense."] Certainly, it is. I was about to say that it has been the experience under all Governments, not least under the party opposite, that, if the level of starts is too high relative to resources, this merely means that schools and other forms of public building are completed in much longer time.