DAVID Blunkett chose this week’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers Harrogate assembly to announce - again - a pound;340 million windfall for nearly 5,000 schools.
The cash, allocated from the New Deal for Schools budget, is the latest phase in the Government’s drive to reduce the repairs backlog. It works out at pound;200 per pupil in the local authorities which bid for the money.
It will be spent on 1,110 projects ranging from re-roofing and replacing windows and boilers to extending schools and building specialist laboratories and classrooms. But the Local Government Association said the pound;340m would make only a small dent in the backlog.
A spokesman added: “It will mean that four out of five schools still face moving into the next millennium with crumbling buildings and leaky roofs. This money will hardly pay for a coat of paint.”
