§ Mr. Liddell-GraingerTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) what the Government guidelines are for bids in relation to capital projects for schools; and how counties will apply for funds; [138874]
(2) when the bids for capital projects to build new schools were sent out to counties. [138873]
§ Mr. MilibandThere are currently two main bidding rounds through which local education authorities (LEAs) are able to apply for capital funding for their school estates, Building Schools for the Future (BSF) and Targeted Capital Fund (TCF).
The guidelines for the BSF programme were set out in guidance sent to all LEAs on 17 July 2003. The TCF guidance was issued to LEAs on 21 July. Both sets of guidance have been deposited in the House of Commons Library.
In both cases authorities were invited to prepare proposals based on the guidance, and to submit their proposals by 31 October 2003. We hope to announce successful projects for the first phase of BSF (due to start in 2005–06) in early January 2004, and successful TCF projects (due to start in 2004–05) will be announced at the end of January.
Expressions of interest for later years BSF funding are due to be submitted by LEAs by 19 December 2003. A further phase of successful BSF projects will subsequently be announced at the end of March.