§ 71. Mr. Andrew F. Bennettasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science (1) if she will include in her engagements for 30th November a speech on the need to replace pre-1910 schools;
(2) what action she intends to take, in the light of her Department's publication,"A Study of School Building ", to provide increased resources for school improvements and for nursery education.
§ Mrs. Shirley Williams:Over the three years 1979–80 to 1981–82 starts for the improvement and replacement of old primary and secondary schools will total £75 million, nearly £ 40 million more than previously planned. The improvements of £11.3 million included in the school building programme announced on 24th August 1978 will now be more than doubled to about £25 million and the additional allocations will be issued shortly. The remaining £50 million is planned for starts in 1980–81 and 1981–82. The allocation of this amount will be announced next year. At the same time I will announce my conclusions on the consultations with the local education authorities which followed the publication of the Department's study of school building.
Over the same three years starts for nursery education will total over £14 million, some £3 million more than previously planned. My Department will shortly be issuing the nursery education programme for 1979–80 which will now total £5.9 million.
These additional resources do not involve any increase in total public expenditure.