§ 24. Mr. Biggs-Davisonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science when the Essex school building programme for 1967–68 will be considered and approved.
§ Mr. PrenticeThe full school building programme for 1967–68 will be announced for Essex as for all authorities after the Government has considered 613 future levels of public expenditure. Meanwhile a first instalment of the 1967–68 programme has already been announced for some authorities and my right hon. Friend is proposing to make a similar announcement for Essex shortly.
§ Mr. ChatawayIn view of the generous and repeated pre-election and election pledges, can the Minister say what additions are being made to the school building programmes in the next two years?
§ Mr. PrenticeThe original Question dealt with Essex. Already, since last October, additional projects for 1966–67 for Essex, to a total of £356,000, have been announced. On the longer-term question of the next two years, as I said in my original Answer, the whole programme of Government expenditure is being reviewed as a whole, and the school building figures will emerge as part of that.
§ Sir E. BoyleAre not the extra projects announced for Essex within the total of the sum within which the previous Government were already working? Is the Answer not going a little far, even by the Minister of State's standard of calculation in these matters?
§ Mr. PrenticeAs I have already said twice, the future shape of the school building programme will be part of a review of public spending. We know, of course, that the late Government increased the school building programmes as part of their election shop window, and we are maintaining those figures for the time being, although we suspect that, if a Conservative Government had been elected last October, true to form they would have cut those figures.