§ Mr. Fallonasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what are the implications for capital expenditure on schools and further education of the recent allocations to local education authorities for prescribed capital expenditure and for capital projects at voluntary aided and special agreement schools in 1985–86.
§ Sir Keith JosephThe total available for 1985–86 in respect of county and voluntary schools and of local authority further and higher education is £355 million. This should permit continuing progress with the removal of surplus school places. Within further and higher education, it provides for a start to be made on all those new projects of which local authorities were provisionally informed last autumn, and for all bids made by authorities for expenditure on equipment related to teaching and research to be met in full.
I have retained a small reserve, largely against the possibility of any local education authority being able to demonstrate that the reduction of the prescribed proportion of capital receipts will make it impossible to fulfil contractual or statutory obligations. Authorities have been informed of their share of the total, and a last of the allocations has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.