HC Deb 18 November 1971 vol 826 c619
17. Mr. Spearing

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if she will make a further statement concerning the limits imposed on local education authorities in respect of replacement and improvement of primary and secondary schools.

Mr. Thatcher

I have nothing to add to what I said in the debate on the Address.—[Vol. 825, c. 498–9.]

Mr. Spearing

Is the right hon. Lady aware that she added a great deal yesterday in answer to some 30 of my hon. Friends from the older urban areas when she told them that those areas had asked in the two years concerned for about £25 million worth of primary schools and £18 million worth of secondary schools and were permitted to use of their own money £16 million for primary schools only? Why does she not give them the freedom to choose their own priorities, to spend their own money as they think fit in their own areas? Does she think that she knows better than they do?

Mrs. Thatcher

As the hon. Gentleman knows, we are committed to priority for primary schools. The money for the improvements programme is greater than has been supplied for quite a long time, but we think that the tiny children should come first in the replacement programme.