HC Deb 05 February 1959 vol 599 c120W
Colonel Beamish

asked the Minister of Education the approximate cost of providing primary and secondary school places in 1950; the estimated cost in the latest comparable period for which figures are available; and how much he estimates the reduction in the cost per place has saved the tax-payer and the rate-payer since October, 1951, with and without taking into account the general rise in building costs.

Mr. Geoffrey Lloyd

The information is as follows:

Primary Secondary
£ £
Average nett cost of places in new schools approved in 1950 158 276
Average nett cost of places in new schools approved in the first six months of 1958 146 255

These reductions in cost per place yielded approximately the following savings from October, 1951 to September, 1958:—

£ million
(1) without taking into account the general rise in building costs 37
(2) taking into account the general rise in building costs 175

NOTES:

(a) New places provided by minor works are disregarded.

(b) New places provided by major extensions are treated in the same way as places in new schools, though reductions in cost per place had only an indirect effect upon them.

(c) The nett cost is the cost of the buildings but not of the site works.